


Scars

by Graceaphine



Category: Bully (Video Games)
Genre: Angst, Attempted Rape/Non-Con, But we get a bit of insight into his backstory, Can you tell there's abuse in this fanfic?, Child Abuse, Consensual Underage Sex, Depression, Eating Disorders, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/M, Fluff, He really is trying to be a better psycho, He's still a psycho, Hurt/Comfort, I promise, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Incest, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Incest, Jimmy helps Gary make things right, Jimmy is too trusting, M/M, Mental Disorders, Non-Consensual, Non-Consensual Blow Jobs, Non-Consensual Groping, Non-Consensual Kissing, Non-Consensual Oral Sex, Non-Consensual Spanking, Non-Consensual Touching, Non-Consensual Violence, Parent/Child Incest, Past Rape/Non-con, Physical Abuse, Rape/Non-con Elements, Redemption for Gary, Self Harm, Self-Harm, Sexual Abuse, Suicidal Thoughts, Suicide Attempt, Trust, Trust Issues, Underage Rape/Non-con, Underage Sex, Vulnerable Gary Smith, add, they have a complicated relationship mkay
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-19
Updated: 2018-10-19
Packaged: 2019-08-04 10:13:06
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 7
Words: 19,277
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16344848
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Graceaphine/pseuds/Graceaphine
Summary: When Gary sneaks into the boy's dorm one evening, Jimmy thinks this is it - Gary is finally going to kill him.A couple of hours later, Jimmy somehow finds himself offering to help Gary prove that he's no longer a threat to society and ready to leave the asylum to live in the outside world again.What the fuck is his life?--When Gary sneaks into the boys dorm one evening, he thinks this is it - he's finally going to get his revenge on Jimmy Hopkins.Somehow, in the span of a couple of days following the incident, Gary finds himself opening up for the first time to someone - that someone being Jimmy Hopkins, of all people!Maybe he shouldn't have stopped taking his medications...





	1. It's Been A While

**Author's Note:**

> Takes place after the game.
> 
> Chapter outline -  
> Chapter One: It's Been A While - Gary sneaks into the boys dorm to murder Jimmy when the two somehow end up bonding.  
> Chapter Two: Can't Get You Out Of My Mind - Back in the dump known as the asylum, Gary ponders on the incident at the boy's dorms, when he is suddenly paid a surprise visit by none other than Jimmy Hopkins.  
> Chapter Three: Hate, Love Or Plain Stupidity? - Jimmy volunteers to help Gary prove he's mentally fit to live in society normally again...God help them.  
> Chapter Four: Taste Of (Pesudo) Freedom - After getting Gary out on certain conditions, Jimmy takes him to his beach house and the two bond.  
> Chapter Five: Making A Start - Jimmy formulates a plan to help prove Gary has changed. Gary is less than excited.  
> Chapter Six: Talking With Doctor Crabblesnitch - Jimmy and Gary try to get Crabblesnitch to allow Gary to attend Bullworth again.  
> Chapter Seven: The Bullies - Gary and Jimmy work on improving Gary's relationship with the bullies.  
> Chapter Eight: Drunken Sorrows - Gary and Jimmy help Mr. Galloway solve the cause of his drinking problem.  
> Chapter Nine: The Preps - Gary and Jimmy work on improving Gary's relationship with the preps.  
> Chapter Ten: How To Prevent Food Poisoning - Gary and Jimmy help Edna not become a murderer by giving everyone food poisoning.  
> Chapter Eleven: The Greasers - Gary and Jimmy work on improving Gary's relationship with the Greasers.  
> Chapter Twelve: Magical Growing Soil - Gary and Jimmy help Dr. Slawter retrieve some "magical growing soil".  
> Chapter Thirteen: The Nerds - Gary and Jimmy work on improving Gary's relationship with the nerds.  
> Chapter Fourteen: How To Not Get Date-Raped - Gary and Jimmy help Dr. Watts avoid getting drugged by Edna.  
> Chapter Fifteen: The Jocks - Gary and Jimmy work on improving Gary's relationship with the jocks.  
> Chapter Sixteen: True Art - Gary and Jimmy help Ms Phillips gain inspiration.  
> Chapter Seventeen: The Townies - Gary and Jimmy work on improving Gary's relationship with the townies.  
> Chapter Eighteen: Sightseeing - Gary and Jimmy help Mr. Matthews work out the countries on his maps after an incident.  
> Chapter Nineteen: Zoe Taylor - Gary and Jimmy attempt to make amends with Zoe, preferably without any deaths.  
> Chapter Twenty: Bike Repairs - Gary and Jimmy help Niel repair some bikes.  
> Chapter Twenty One: Femme Boy - It's time for the apology Gary's been least looking forward to. He's expecting to be punched at least twice.  
> Chapter Twenty Two: Principles - Gary and Jimmy help out Doctor Crabblesnitch organize an important event at school.  
> Chapter Twenty Three: Celebration - Gary and Jimmy celebrate how much they have achieved thus far with sex.  
> Chapter Twenty Four: Daddy Dearest - Someone comes to pay Gary a visit.  
> *MORE TO BE ADDED IN THE FUTURE.*

It had been a few months since James “Jimmy” Hopkins had faced off against the resident psychopath, Gary Smith and punched him off the roof. Jimmy knew that he probably shouldn't, that bastard didn't deserve it, but Jimmy couldn’t stop thinking about what happened to Gary after the cops took him away. Was Gary locked up in the crazy asylum filled with morons? Nah, they probably couldn't handle him. Was Gary in jail? Nah, they wouldn't be able to handle him either. Maybe they just executed Gary since no one could handle his psycho ass? Well...There was one person that always could - Jimmy. Even when he was being tricked into thinking he and Gary had some sort of friendship, Jimmy was able to handle him. Jimmy was still the only one able to handle Gary after that too. Not that Jimmy liked nor wanted to tolerate Gary, it was just he wasn't able to be played like Gary’s puppet like the others. As Jimmy laid on his bed, staring up at the ceiling, he decided that maybe Gary wasn't the best thing to think about- especially at fricken 1:30am- and rolled onto his side in an attempt to fall asleep. 

The sound of an intruder in his room was what woke Jimmy up, not that he recalled falling asleep. Jimmy immediately sat up in his bed and tried to reach for the switch to turn the light on, however, no matter how much he flicked and fiddled desperately with the switch Jimmy still couldn’t get it to turn on. ‘Great, of all the fucking moments for the light to be busted, it just had to be now. Wonderful.’ Jimmy bitterly thought to himself as he suppressed a grumble.

The room fell silent. Was the intruder gone? Jimmy decided to take his chances and sneak into the hallway to get the fire extinguisher to use as a weapon in case the intruder tried anything. However, Jimmy’s hand didn't even touch the doorknob before his plan was foiled. The cold metal of a knife’s blade pressed up against Jimmy’s neck - not applying enough pressure to be fatal but enough to draw blood - as a arm snaked around Jimmy’s shoulder and the intruder pressed up against him. Jimmy felt his breath get caught in his throat as a familiar voice, filled with malice, whispered in his ear, “It’s been awhile, James.”

“Gary!? What the heck are you doing in here? Aren’t you supposed to be locked up or something?” Jimmy asked.

Gary chuckled, as if amused by Jimmy’s confusion, answered, “Apparently that stupid asylum can't tell their staff from their patients.” 

‘So he was in the asylum.’ Jimmy thought.

“There's prefects right outside this dorm, you know, if I scream or run outside to get them, you’ll go back to being locked up.” Jimmy threatened, however Gary just laughed at this.

“Oh James, your stupidity never ceases to amaze me. Even if you tried to scream, you’d be dead before anyone can hear you. In case you haven't realised, I’m the one with the advantage here.” Gary said. 

“There are others in this dorm, they would hear you if you try anything, you fucker!” Jimmy argued.

“Oh, don't worry about them, James, I took real good care of them.” Gary  
said with a crazed smirk.

Jimmy’s eyes widened. “You psychopath, you better not have killed them!” Jimmy exclaimed. 

Gary stared at Jimmy for a moment and Jimmy began to fear that he was right, until suddenly, Gary started howling with laughter. “Are you serious? I didn't kill them, moron. If it was that easy to kill them, I would have done it ages ago. You know what they're like, though, they're like an infestation of rats. All I did to them was slip them all some sleeping pills to make sure they won't ruin our fun.” Gary explained.

Gary hummed as he ran his knife down Jimmy’s chest in various directions and movements, making patterns and carvings in Jimmy’s skin with his own blood. Jimmy dug his nails into the floor underneath him as he squeezed his eyes shut and bit his lip, desperately trying not to scream. “What should I carve into you, Jimmy-boy? Something revealing? Something humiliating? Maybe an embarrassing secret? Or all three!” 

Without warning, Gary plunged the knife into Jimmy’s shoulder, resulting in the latter crying out in pain, and started carving. Once he had finished, Gary smirked smugly and asked, “There, isn't that perfect, Jimmy?” 

Gary forced Jimmy’s head up and tilted it so Jimmy could see the carvings in his skin. The carvings had been done elegantly, sickly so, that you could clearly make out the words, ‘I touch myself while thinking of Gary Smith brutally fucking me.’

Jimmy grimaced as humiliation, embarrassment, horror, anger and disgust all flushed across his face. Furious with not receiving an answer, Gary slammed Jimmy’s face into the wall and snapped in a threatening tone, “Answer me when I'm speaking to you, James.”

Jimmy groaned, his vision blurry and dazed, and mumbled, “G-Gary!”

Jimmy’s skin was becoming pale from the amount of blood he was losing. Gary sneered and asked in a mocking tone with false concern, “Awwh, did I give little Jimmy a boo-boo?”

Gary waved his hand dismissively as he said in a more serious tone, “Well, whatever, can't have you bleeding to death on me before the fun has even started.”

Gary then suddenly pressed the blade of the knife to Jimmy’s neck and leaned down to whisper threateningly in Jimmy’s ear, “You try to scream, run or do anything and I will kill you, understand?”

Gary’s breath was warm as he growled against Jimmy’s ear. Despite his great reluctance, Jimmy knew that all he could do was nod in obedience. Gary slowly got off Jimmy and walked out of the bedroom. Jimmy remained in the same position Gary had left him in - bleeding and trembling - until Gary walked in a few minutes later with a glass of water in one hand and a cloth in the other. Jimmy wondered where Gary got the glass and cloth but knew that it was better not to question Gary and just sat there while Gary crouched down beside him. “Here, you moron.” Gary said before dumping the freezing water on Jimmy’s wounded body.

Jimmy shivered as the water touched his body. As Jimmy flinched and shivered, Gary laughed in amusement. “Was it really that cold or are you just being a whimp?” Gary asked.

“No, actually it’s perfectly fine- maybe even on the warm side.” Jimmy sarcastically replied, shooting Gary a glare.

“Oh good, then this won't bother you at all.” Gary said, pretending not to notice the obvious sarcasm in Jimmy’s tone.

Before Jimmy could reply, Gary quickly grabbed the empty cup and left the room. Jimmy heard the sound of a tap turning on and tensed. Just as Jimmy feared, Gary entered soon after with the same cup in hand. “Gary! Don't you fucking dare!” Jimmy snapped as he tried to scramble away from the grinning psychopath.

In an attempt to scramble away, Jimmy banged his, up to that point, not-wounded arm hard against the wall. Jimmy winced in pain and when he looked up, Gary was looming over him, cup in hand. Jimmy squeezed his eyes shut and braced himself for the unwelcome coldness he was going to feel as soon as Gary dumped that cup on him.  
.  
.  
.  
.  
.  
.  
.  
Annny minute now…  
.  
.  
.  
.  
.  
.  
.  
Gary was just messing with Jimmy, he was definitely going to dump that water on him...  
.  
.  
.  
.  
.  
.  
.  
Right?  
.  
.  
.  
.  
.  
.  
.  
Okay, seriously, what the fuck was Gary waiting for?  
.  
.  
.  
.  
.  
.  
.  
Jimmy risked a peek up at Gary who was smirking and looked like he was trying not to laugh. Next to Gary was the tipped over cup…

The cup that was tipped over on the completely dry floor…

Waaaaaait!

“You were bluffing?” Jimmy asked, surprised and annoyed at falling for Gary’s trick.

“I forgot how easy you were to fool, James.” Gary mocked with a smirk.

Jimmy rolled his eyes and shot back, “Well, unfortunately I couldn't forget how much of a massive dick you are.”

“Oh, so I’ve been on your mind, huh, Jimmy-boy?” Gary asked with a teasing smirk.

Jimmy, face red, sneered and snapped, “S-Shut the fuck up! You know that's not what I meant.” 

Although Gary compiled and didn't say anything else on the matter, the devilish smirk didn't leave his lips as he grabbed the cloth from earlier and began drying Jimmy’s bloody wounds. Jimmy flinched and tensed at Gary's touch. Noticing this, Gary frowned and asked, “What?”

“Why are...Why aren't you choking me or something?” Jimmy asked.

Gary raised an eyebrow and asked, “Do you want me to?”

“Fuck no! It's just you’re being strangely friendly...for your standards, I mean.” Jimmy replied.

Gary sneered and said, “I don't do ‘friendly’ and I don't have friends. I thought I’ve made that painfully clear by now.” 

“You could, you know. I mean, before all that shit went down, I actually did consider you a friend.” Jimmy admitted, mumbling.

Gary snorted in amusement and said, “Yeah right. If we became ‘friends’ you would’ve just backstabbed me and took over Bullworth yourself.”

“Are you still going on about that? I’ve told you a million times, I’m not that kind of person.” Jimmy replied.

Gary rolled his eyes and turned away with a huff and grumbled, “That's what everyone else would say but none of them end up telling the truth when they say it.” 

“Well, I’m not like everyone else.” Jimmy replied. 

Silence filled the room, except for Gary’s annoyed huffs. Dying to break the silence, Jimmy asked, “What's it like in that asylum?” 

Gary snorted and replied, “What’s it like? I’ll tell you what it's like. It makes this Hell hole look like Paradise!” 

Jimmy wasn't sure why he said what he said next, to be honest, it was a bad idea and was going to cause problems for everyone but he offered anyways, “What if I could convince Dr. Crabblesnitch to let you back into Bullworth?”

Gary looked surprised, which was a rare thing to see. “Why? Why would you want me back there? I’ll just ruin everything for you and your friends again so why the hell are you offering something so...so...stupid!? What's the catch?” Gary asked, skeptical. 

Was Jimmy really going to go through with this? Was Jimmy going to reform and bring back the biggest psychopath Bullworth had ever seen? Well,  
Jimmy already started, no going back now. “The catch is that you have to go back on your medication, proper ones, proper amount.” Jimmy replied.

Gary stared at Jimmy and for the longest moment, neither said a word. Finally, Gary broke the silence with a light laugh and asked, “Jimmy Hopkins wants to not just reform me but get me back into Bullworth? Never thought I would see the day. You do know what I would have done if things went according to plan though, right?” 

Leaning forward, Gary once again grabbed the bloodied knife and held it to Jimmy’s neck, however, the latter didn't show any signs of fear despite the position he was in. Interesting, to say the least. Gary whispered in a low voice, “Let’s just say...There would be a lot more blood on this knife.” 

Pulling away, the knife wielding hand fell to Gary’s side as he continued, “But...Somehow...Talking to you has been almost interesting.” 

Before Jimmy could reply, the sounds of the other boy's waking up and realizing they had been drugged filled the room as angry shouts filled the dorms. Soon, the prefects started entering the dorm trying to calm down the screaming boys. “Looks like that's my cue to leave.” Gary said.

“What if they catch you?” Jimmy asked.

“Awwh, are you worrying about me, Jimmy-boy? As touched as I am, I’ll be fine. They couldn't catch me even if they tied me up.” Gary replied.

“Let's do this again sometime, Jimmy, I’ll be looking forward to it.” Gary added, giving Jimmy one last glance before leaving.

As if he was never there to begin with, Gary practically vanished out of Jimmy’s sight, taking all evidence of his visit - besides Jimmy’s scars - with him. Jimmy just sat where he was, the events that had just transpired hadn't fully processed in his brain. Jimmy wasn't sure how long had passed before he was snapped back to reality by the sound of someone knocking on the door of his room. However, Jimmy didn't really feel like responding. After a while, a quiet, nervous voice said, “J-Jimmy? A-Are you okay? E-Everyone woke up really confused and we had no idea what happened and you haven't come out in a while s-so I wanted to make sure you were okay.” 

As soon as he heard that voice, Jimmy knew it was Pete at the door. Jimmy didn't know what to say but Pete would walk in and see Gary’s ‘artwork’ on his skin if he didn't say anything. “Yeah, I’m fine.” Jimmy lied.

It was an obvious, desperate lie but it was the only thing Jimmy had.

“A-Alright then, see you whenever you come out, I guess…” Pete replied.

As Jimmy heard the sound of Pete walking away, he couldn't help but sigh. He wasn't use to lying so poorly but it was the only thing he could manage because in reality, all he could think was, ‘What the fuck just happened?’


	2. Can't Get You Out Of My Mind

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Asylums suck so Gary decides to think about Jimmy Hopkins instead.
> 
>  
> 
> Wait...What?

Beds in asylums fucking suck. If that was the one thing being locked up in that stupid asylum had taught Gary, it was that. Gary didn't learn shit about what he ‘did wrong’ and ‘how he needs to change’ but what he did learn was that the cheap ass brick, that somehow is able to be classified as a bed, that he was currently lying on was uncomfortable as Hell. As Gary laid on the bed and stared up at the ceiling, he decided to take his mind off of the uncomfortable pain in his back by thinking about something else, something unpredictable, something interesting...Someone like Jimmy...Man, was Gary so bored that he was literally thinking about Hopkins? Well, it's not like Gary had anything better to do and their encounter the previous night was rather...interesting to think about. 

In truth, Gary had snuck into Bullworth to get revenge on Jimmy Hopkins. The plan was to recorded himself torturing and humiliating Jimmy to the point where Jimmy would be in so much pain and anguish that he would end up committing suicide to escape it, which would have ruined his ‘tough guy’ act and his reputation and then with no one smart enough or with enough balls to take him on, Gary would easily take over Bullworth before eventually taking over the world. However, the plan ended up being aborted for reasons Gary wasn't too sure of himself - all he knew was that Jimmy was more interesting than those other puppets and somehow managed to entertain Gary. That was the second time one of Gary’s plans failed - the first being when Jimmy just barely managed to stop him from taking over Bullworth. Both failures were because of Jimmy and Gary hated failing almost as much as people who cause him to fail. Though if Gary hated Jimmy so much - which he did - why was Jimmy so entertaining? The last time Gary found someone entertaining, well, let's just say they're not with us anymore. However, Jimmy wasn't just entertaining, he was...special…? 

.

.

.

.

.

Nah, it probably had more to do with the fact that Jimmy was a massive moron. Still though, Gary never expected himself to abort his own plan at the last minute for that moron! On top of all that, that moron even offered to get him back into Bullworth - the place that came close to permanent destruction because of Gary! It was almost...touching - wait, what? - no, it was amusing that Jimmy foolishly - cared - thought about him so much. What was this weird feeling Gary had?

.

.

.

.

.

.

Wait, feeling? That loser Jimmy had gotten Gary to feel something without it involving Gary brutally torturing him? “Hmph. I’m almost impressed with you, James…” Gary mumbled, a small smirk on his lips. 

“Almost.” Gary emphasised. 

Suddenly, Gary heard the familiar, unwelcome sound of footsteps as one of the orderlies walked up to his cell and said, “Mr. Smith, it's time for your daily group therapy session with the psychiatrist.” 

With clenched teeth and a roll of his eyes, Gary grumbled sarcastically, “Lovely.” 

As Gary was reluctantly dragged off to his ‘therapy session’, he mentally plotted about how he would one day get his revenge on these assholes and the moron who got him in here.

The group therapy session was worse than Gary had anticipated. This time they had a criminal prosecutor prodigy from the local Prosecutor’s Office to talk to them about some cases she had involving psychopaths. “I was fifteen when I had my first case two years ago. The victim was a mother who was found dead in her bedroom with a knife plunged in her chest and multiple stab wounds on her arms and legs. Her husband was arrested for the murder but the defence attorney on the case tried to pin the blame on the victim’s son. It turned out the victim’s son - who was 13 at the time - wasn't the killer but caused the stab wounds on his mother's body after he discovered his deceased mother with the intention of convicting his father, who he knew was the killer, with a harsher sentence if it looked like he tortured his wife. With the son's innocence being proven, the only possible suspect left was the father. Eventually, I got the father to confess. It turned out he had a mental illness but rather than taking his medications, he flushed them down the toilet and pretended he took them. When his wife found out, she threatened to have her husband locked up in an asylum if he didn't take his medications so in anger, her husband plotted to kill her. It was later revealed that the father had been abusing his son emotionally, physically and sexually which caused his son to develop various mental illnesses such as depression so when the son discovered what his father did, he tried to make the crime look as heinous as possible before reporting the incident to the police. In the end, the father was jailed for 15 years and the son was sent to an asylum after trying to poison his father before the trial. I don’t know what happened to the child afterwards but from what I’ve heard, the asylum couldn't help him.” the prosecutor explained.

Gary barely listened to the explanation, not caring about what the prosecutor was saying in the slightest - he was board. After a few more stories from the prosecutor, the psychiatrist got the group of them to try some trust exercises to build up trust and friendliness with each other. Gary, however, refused to do so. “No way, I’m not going anywhere near these perverts.” Gary snapped.

“Mr. Smith-!” the psychiatrist began but was cut off by the prosecutor.

“No, it's alright. We can't force him to do something he doesn't want to do. After all, from what I heard, that boy from my first case didn't participate in the group therapy activities either.” the prosecutor said.

“I couldn't care less about you or your stories.” Gary sneered.

“Well, Mr. Smith - was it? - the best of stories are always true, as I’m sure you know quite well.” the prosecutor replied.

“Whatever.” Gary said, rolling his eyes.

As Gary turned to leave, the prosecutor called after him, “Say hello to Mr. Hopkins for me.” 

Gary just sneered in response.

When he got back to his prison, Gary couldn’t help but think about the events that had transpired at the therapy session. The way Gary stormed out like that sounded like something Jimmy would do - it was almost like that moron was rubbing off on Gary. With a light chuckle, Gary mumbled, “Now there's a scary thought.” 

Gary looked over to where his packets of medications were. If other people didn't take their medication, why should Gary take his? As Gary proceeded to flush the pills down the tiny toilet in his prison cell, he overheard some orderlies talking. 

“That Smith kid is a real psychopath.”

“I’m not sure if there’s much more we can do for him.”

“Maybe we should discharge him?”

“Are you kidding?”

“Yeah, he’ll probably try to commit a mass murder, then he’ll just be dumped right back here.”

“Or he would go to jail.”

“Actually, that isn't a bad idea.”

“Yeah, except for the whole mass murder part!” 

“Oh yeah…”

Gary huffed in both annoyance and anger. What the hell did those bastards know? Gary pulled the pressed the flush on the toilet - probably harder than needed - deciding that he would rather listen to the sound of a flushing toilet than those dickheads go on about shit they knew nothing about. Gary was a sociopath - he wasn’t denying that - but he wasn't as bad as the fucker who made him like this. Man, this day had been shitty. Did Gary max out the fun he was allowed to have when he saw Jimmy or something? Gary would’ve said, “Well, at least things can’t possibly get any worse…” but knowing his luck - and the fact that saying that would be clique as fuck - something else would happen that would make the day even more horrendous.

Suddenly, someone placed their hand on Gary’s shoulder - which caused Gary to immediately tense up - and whispered, “Gary, what the fuck are you doing?”

On instinct, Gary turned around and punched the intruder in the face. The intruder fell back, groaning in pain, and mumbled, “I guess that's what I get for punching you off a building - not that you didn't deserve it.” 

Wait a second, that voice and stupidity was all too familiar. “Jimmy?” Gary asked, honestly quite surprised.


	3. Hate, Love Or Plain Stupdity?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Jimmy makes probably the stupidest decision of his life and considering his track record, that's certainly saying something.

Jimmy didn't sneak into the asylum to visit Gary because he cared or worried about him, he just wanted answers. For instance, what the fuck was Gary’s visit the other night all about? Jimmy was confused and wanted to clear up his confusion. However, it appears it was a good thing Jimmy decided to pay Gary a little visit for when he arrived, he caught Gary trying to flush his pills down the toilet. Although Jimmy didn't expect Gary to be anticipating that he would sneak into the asylum to see him, he didn't think Gary would’ve punched him in the face - although, it’s not like Jimmy had never done it to Gary. “Who did you think it was, idiot?” Jimmy asked as he pulled himself up from the floor.

“What are you doing here?” Gary asked.

“Came to see you.” Jimmy replied, however, when he saw Gary’s smirk Jimmy knew he chose his words poorly.

“Looks like Femme Boy isn't the only one pitching for the other team.” Gary said teasingly.

Jimmy felt his face flush as he snapped with a glare, “Shut up, that's not what I meant and you know it!” 

“Anyways, enough about that. What the heck were you doing just now?” Jimmy asked.

“Hm? I don't know what you're referring to.” Gary replied, deciding to play dumb to avoid talking about a touchy and dangerous subject.

“Don't play dumb with me.” Jimmy said, seeing through Gary’s obvious lie.

“Oh? But I was merely trying to play at your level.” Gary retorted, hiding behind a smirk.

Jimmy rolled his eyes. Sometimes - okay, more than sometimes - Gary was a real jerk and Jimmy didn't know why he was trying to lecture Gary on what he had just caught him doing but for some reason it really bothered Jimmy. “Can you not insult me for five minutes and answer my question?” Jimmy asked, not even trying to hide the irritation in his voice.

“I already did, I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Gary replied.

‘Why is he trying to fool me with such an obvious lie? Is Gary desperate or something? I’ve never seen him this desperate before.’ Jimmy thought to himself.

“Don't remember or don't want to remember?” Jimmy asked, causing Gary to visibly flinch.

Jimmy quickly continued and said, “Fine then, allow me to jog your memory. You were just flushing your medications down a fucking toilet.” 

Gary fell silent - he didn’t want to talk and Jimmy knew this, however, he needed to find out what the heck Gary was doing and why. “What I do with my medications is none of your business, James. Besides, I told you before we went to the hole and I made you fight Russell that I don’t take my medications.” Gary finally said after a long pause. 

“Yeah but aren’t they supposed to make sure you’re taking it in asylums? You know, watch you take them and then dig around your mouth and make sure you didn’t hide them under your tongue?” Jimmy asked.

“You’ve been doing your research, Jimmy-boy, I’m almost impressed. Almost.” Gary said with a teasing smirk, making extra sure to emphasize the word ‘almost’.

“But you are right, that’s what they do. I’ve been taking my pills for a while now - ever since I was locked up in this prison - but they haven’t been helping me so I decided not to take them anymore.” Gary admitted, although Jimmy still had a feeling Gary was keeping something from him.

“And?” Jimmy asked.

“And what?” Gary asked.

“That can’t be the only thing to it, spit out the rest. Besides, even if you flush your medications down the toilet, they’ll just get you more and force you to take them - they’ll probably keep you in here even longer - so there’s gotta be a better reason for you to do something so stupid.” Jimmy answered.

Before Gary could respond, however, the sounds of footsteps could be heard. Gary was the first of the two boys to react and quickly whispered to Jimmy, “Hide, you moron!”

Jimmy quickly dove into a nearby trash can and held his breath as an orderly walked up to where Gary was being held in and said, “Mr. Smith, your father just called. He wants to speak with you.” 

Jimmy watched as Gary recoiled and the colour drained from his face. “M-My father!?” Gary asked, a hint of - fear? - evident in his voice.

“No! There’s no way I’m going to talk to that dirty rapist!” Gary snapped angrily.

“Rapist? What the fuck is Gary going on about?” Jimmy wondered as he quietly watched the orderly and Gary argue back and forth for a while until Gary was eventually dragged off to go speak with his father.

Jimmy quietly remained in his confusion and in his hiding spot. It would be bad if Jimmy got caught before demanding that Gary told him what the fuck was going on. It felt like an eternity before Gary was dragged back into his holding room. When Gary had returned, he looked even worse than how he looked when his father was mentioned. Making sure the orderly had gone, Jimmy carefully climbed out of his hiding spot and walked over to where Gary was. Gary had his back to Jimmy so Jimmy placed his hand on Gary’s shoulder. Gary was shaking and felt extremely tense. In normal circumstances, Gary would have slapped Jimmy’s hand away in disgust and have told him to fuck off but this was different and, although he refused to admit it, deep down Gary needed Jimmy’s support. “Gary? What happened?” Jimmy asked.

“Don’t worry about it.” Gary grumbled.

“I think it’s a bit too fucking late for that.” Jimmy pointed out.

“I can answer your question, Mr. Hopkins.” a voice suddenly said.

Jimmy and Gary both turned around as soon as they heard the voice. “Oh, it’s you. What are you doing here?” Gary asked bitterly.

“Mind filling me in?” Jimmy asked.

“I’m a prosecutor from the Local Prosecutor’s Office. I was invited to join in on Mr. Smith’s group therapy session earlier today to share some stories of some of the cases I’ve been involved in. My first case involved Mr. Smith.” the prosecutor answered.

“You’ve been to jail?” Jimmy asked Gary, eyes wide.

“No, but he has been to court.” the prosecutor replied.

“I got most of my mental illnesses from my father - we both have ADD and my father didn’t take his pills either but pretended he did. My mother wasn’t happy when she found out my father wasn’t taking his medication and threatened to have him sent to an asylum if he didn’t take his medication. My father murdered my mother - he stabbed her with a knife in her chest. I was the first to discover her corpse. My father had been abusing me for as long as I could remember so I decided to disfigure the corpse as much as possible before calling the police and telling them my father had gone insane. I wasn’t particularly close with my father or mother - I mean, she knew that I was being abused but was too chicken to stand up to him - so I felt and still feel no remorse for my actions. During the trial, I was figured out and sent to this asylum for a year while my father’s been sent to jail. However, when they saw how fucked up I am, the asylum gave up on me and sent me to Bullworth. The truth behind the case was revealed in court by the prosecutor on the case who, as you’ve probably figured out by now, is...her.” Gary, very slowly and very, very reluctantly, explained as he gestured to the prosecutor.

Jimmy was stunned - shocked even. He knew there must’ve been a reason as to why Gary was so fucked up but Jimmy didn’t expect to be something like that. “Gary, I…” Jimmy began, although he wasn’t too sure what he wanted to say.

“You know why I don’t like taking my medicine? It’s because if that asshole doesn’t take his, why should I take mine?” Gary asked.

“Mr. Smith, I understand your disdain towards your father but he is not a good role model - you shouldn’t try to be like him.” the prosecutor said.

“Try to be like him? What makes you think I want to be like that pedophile?” Gary asked.

“The fact that you’re not taking your medications just because your father doesn’t.” the prosecutor replied. 

Gary sneered but didn't make any other response to that. “Um, hate to interrupt, but how the heck did you know my name?” Jimmy asked the prosecutor.

“The psychiatrist told me earlier that Mr. Smith talks about you often. Apparently he has some very complicated...feelings...towards you.” the prosecutor replied, shooting Jimmy a wink - although Jimmy had no idea what the wink meant.

“S-Shut up! I do not!” Gary snapped.

However, for the briefest moment, Jimmy could’ve sworn he saw Gary blush but that would be crazy - right? There’s no way Gary blushed because of some ‘complicated feelings’ towards Jimmy...right…? “In any case, I should excuse myself.” the prosecutor said before turning to leave.

However, Jimmy quickly stopped the prosecutor and called out to her, “Wait!” 

The prosecutor didn’t fully turn around, only tilted her head to peer at Jimmy with violet orbs and ask, “Yes?”

Once again, Jimmy wasn’t sure why he said what he said next - weather it was because of pure stupidity or something else - but nevertheless he said it. “Would Gary be allowed to come back to Bullworth for a while and try to prove he doesn’t need to be in here? I can take responsibility of him and if he doesn’t prove he can be let out of here, I can take him back once the time’s up.” Jimmy offered.

“Wait what?” the prosecutor and Gary both exclaimed at the same time.

“You moron, are you crazy?” Gary asked.

“You would have to ask whoever is in charge of this place about that, however, I believe it would be a good idea.” the prosecutor said before turning fully back around.

“Good luck.” the prosecutor said before walking off.

The two boys stayed exactly as they were for the longest time, until Gary mumbled under his breath, “You are such an idiot!”


	4. Taste Of (Pesudo) Freedom

Gary wasn’t sure what exactly his life was right now. One moment Gary was flushing his pills down the toilet, then he was being lectured by Jimmy, then he was having a ‘delightful’ conversation with ‘daddy-dearest’, then Jimmy suddenly decided to try to prove that he was fit to live in a normal society and now Gary was being ushered out the door with Jimmy by his side. “Well, that went better than I expected.” Jimmy said, the two now standing outside of the asylum.

“What the heck were you thinking?” Gary angrily asked.

“Getting you out of that shithole - you’re welcome, by the way.” Jimmy replied.

“Do you understand the mess you've gotten yourself into? If I screw up, you’re gonna be the one who takes the fall.” Gary snapped.

“Yeah but that’s if you screw up, which I know you’re not going to.” Jimmy said.

“What makes you so sure? I’m not exactly ‘sane’ or the most popular person, you know.” Gary pointed out.

“Well firstly, you have half a brain so, unless I’m wrong about that, you won’t be stupid enough to get yourself back in there and secondly, I have a plan so just try to place a little bit of trust in me, okay?” Jimmy requested.

Gary narrowed his eyes at Jimmy and asked, “Why should I trust you?” 

“Because I’m the only chance you’ve got, I’m the only person willing to help you and you can't apologise to all those people on your own.” Jimmy answered.

Jimmy stepped forward and extended his hand to Gary and asked, “So will you trust me or not?”

Despite his better judgement and all reasoning and logic, Gary reluctantly accepted the extended hand as he mumbled, “Fine.”

Jimmy smirked in triumph and said, “Good. Now come on.” 

“Where?” Gary asked.

“There's a beach house near here I own. We can bunk down there for the night.” Jimmy replied.

As the two began walking, with Jimmy leading the way, Gary asked, “You won a beach house?”

“Yep. All I had to do was beat the shit out of those preppy idiots.” Jimmy smugly replied.

Gary laughed lightly and said, “I should’ve known that's how you would win something.” 

“Of course - and I beat them all in under five minutes without getting pelted by eggs.” Jimmy boasted.

“Without getting pelted by eggs? I’m impressed, Jimmy-boy.” Gary playfully replied.

However, realisation hit the two boys - they were actually having fun together and even talking like they were friends! Embarrassed, both boys looked away shyly as they continued walking towards the beach house in silence.

When they arrived at the beach house, Gary was surprised to see that the beach house was actually much cleaner than he expected - especially since it was Jimmy’s. “I don’t use this place often so it shouldn’t be too dirty.” Jimmy said as they walked inside.

Well, that explained it. “Um, you can sit down if you want.” Jimmy said, noticing Gary awkwardly standing there. 

Gary hesitated before sitting on the edge of the bed - which, despite not being luxury, was definitely better than the brick he called a bed in the asylum. “So I was thinking that we should come up with a game plan.” Jimmy said.

Gary raised an eyebrow and asked, “Game plan?” 

“I was thinking that first we could go talk to Crabblesnitch before first class tomorrow and ask for permission for you to attend Bullworth again.” Jimmy explained.

“In case you’ve forgotten, I kinda manipulated him, his students and his entire staff into doing my bidding, tied him to a chair, took over his school and turned it into an even bigger shithole than it already was - I don’t think he’ll be too happy to see me, let alone let me back into his school.” Gary pointed out.

“Well, yeah but it’s worth a shot, right? Plus I’m practically the hero of the school after our fight so I’m sure if I come with you, the head will give you a chance.” Jimmy replied.

“This isn’t going to work.” Gary said with a sigh.

“Can you at least try to be positive? It’ll work, it’ll just take a bit of time and effort.” Jimmy argued. 

With a huff, Gary leaned his chin on his hand and asked, “Why do you even want to help me anyways?” 

It took a while for Jimmy to reply because in all honesty, he didn’t even know why he wanted to help Gary so much. Normally in this situation, Jimmy wouldn’t have replied but this was Gary Smith he was talking to - Gary was unstable and the more annoyed he got, the more unpredictable he would be. An even more unpredictable Gary was a worse case scenario considering Gary’s mental instability. In the end, Jimmy shrugged his shoulders and mumbled, “To be perfectly honest with you, I don’t even know. I kinda think about sometimes what would’ve happened if you never stopped taking your pills, or if I helped convinced you not to go off them, or if I- I dunno- had just done something more then you wouldn’t have gone psycho and we could’ve been friends. At the same time, I definitely haven’t forgotten about what you did...but I also want to try to be friends again or at least bury the hatchet somehow...It’s kinda hard for me to explain. My feelings for you are complicated.”

Biggest understatement of the fucking year. “So let me get this straight, you think I went psycho because I stopped taking my pills?” Gary asked, much to Jimmy’s confusion.

“Yeah, I mean, right before you tricked me into fighting Russel and your whole plan started you mentioned that you had stopped taking your pills. Isn’t that what caused you to go crazy?” Jimmy asked with a look of dumbfound on his face - which, to be honest, wasn’t uncommon to see on Jimmy’s face, as Gary had learnt.

Gary sighed and replied, “Technically, yes, but isn’t it strange that I had randomly stopped taking my pills, seemingly without a reason? There’s a reason I stopped taking my pills. It’s the same reason as to why I flushed my pills down the toilet earlier.”

Jimmy knew the answer to this - although perhaps that was something Gary would’ve preferred Jimmy not to know - so naturally Jimmy’s lack of surprise in his expression wasn’t surprising. “Your father.” Jimmy said, not needing to guess.

Gary looked away so Jimmy wouldn’t see the uncharacteristic vulnerability in his expression. That wasn’t who Gary was, he wasn’t vulnerable and that’s the way he liked it - or rather the way he liked to appear. All Gary offered the shorter boy was a small nod in confirmation. Jimmy wasn’t sure what to do - sure he had daddy issues too but Jimmy had never had an abusive, rapist or pedophilic father out of the 6 he had gone through, even if they did hate his guts. Jimmy knew that it was a touchy subject for the other boy but at the same time, he was curious about the other and wanted to understand him and what he had been through better. “You mentioned he was abusive as well as a rapist and pedophile, right?” Jimmy asked, hoping his attempt to choose his words carefully was a success. 

Gary nodded slightly in response. “Who did he do all that stuff to?” Jimmy asked, although he had a feeling he knew the answer to his own question before he even asked.

“Me. For as long as I could remember he would go from beating me to swearing at me, to kissing me and covering me in slobber, to biting me, to forcing himself into me, to telling me what a ‘whore’ and ‘worthless piece of shit’ I am, to telling me all these ‘lovely’ things that you would just ‘love’ to hear your father say to you, like how much of a ‘mistake’ I am, or that ‘I should go kill myself’ or that he would ‘slit my throat while I slept if I told anyone about what he did to me’.” Gary ranted with a bitter huff.

“What about your mum?” Jimmy asked.

“She just sat there on her lazy ass, pretending to be oblivious and in denial because her precious husband couldn’t possibly do such a thing. And then when she finally wakes up from her stupidity, she threatens him and he kills her.” Gary answered before laughing harshly and adding, “Ha! Those two were made for each other. I hope they both burn in Hell for what they did to me.”

Gary sighed, trying to calm himself done, before saying, “Do you know what it’s like to not be able to trust your own parents? It makes it really hard to trust others and open up to them because you have to constantly worry about them backstabbing you and hurting you like you were hurt before.” 

Jimmy was surprised at the amount of vulnerability Gary was showing him and the amount of things Gary was revealing to him but also felt sympathetic towards the taller boy. No one deserved to go through what Gary had been through, no matter what kind of things they had done. As Gary sat with his face away from Jimmy, he suddenly felt Jimmy’s arms around him. Gary stared up at the auburn haired boy in confusion and asked, “Jimmy, what are you doing?”

The response Gary received was surprising to say the least, “I’m not going to let him or anyone else even think about hurting you again.” 

Gary’s eyes widened, his instincts instantly telling him not to trust Jimmy or else he would suffer like he had before and to ditch Jimmy before Jimmy could ditch him. However, for once Gary decided to ignore his instincts and listen to something else that was telling him to open up to Jimmy and that he could trust Jimmy. Gary leaned back into Jimmy’s embrace and replied, “I believe you.”

It was at that moment that for the first time since they had met, Gary and Jimmy exchanged genuine smiles.


	5. Making A Start

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jimmy has put a lot of thought into this plan. Usually, Jimmy doesn't put much thought into things but this time it's different - it's for Gary. 
> 
> Jimmy just hopes Gary is also determined to go through with this plan.

Jimmy awoke the next morning to a surprising scene. Last night Jimmy had accidentally fallen asleep with Gary still lying in his arms. Gary was still asleep, chest rising and falling slowly and eyes shut. Although Jimmy didn't plan on saying it out loud, he couldn't help but think that in the position Gary was in, he looked kind of...cute.

According to the clock, it's 6:30am. Usually, Jimmy hated getting up early - he usually woke up at 8:00am and that was bad enough - but since Gary had to apologise to literally everyone, Jimmy decided it would be easier to talk to Dr. Crabblesnitch and convince him to let Gary attend Bullworth again so they could start off with the people at Bullworth and then work on the Townies. Since it was going most likely going to be a long meeting - especially because Gary isn’t exactly on Dr. Crabblesnitch good list - Jimmy decided to wake up earlier and go with Gary before the first class started to see the principle. Although, it would be hard to do all that if Gary was asleep so Jimmy decided to wake him up. Shaking Gary gently, Jimmy said, “Gary, wake up.” 

Gary groaned slightly and shifted around a bit but otherwise made no response nor attempt to get up. “Come, dude, get up. We have to go talk to Crabblesnitch and convince him to let you back into Bullworth so you don't go back into the asylum.” Jimmy said, only to receive soft snores in response.

Jimmy huffed in annoyance and folded his arms as he said, “Man, you're so annoying. For someone who wanted to take over the world or whatever, you sure do sleep a lot.” 

Suddenly, Jimmy noticed a smirk sneak onto Gary’s lips. ‘Why that little-! He was just pretending to sleep! How long has he been awake?’ Jimmy wondered.

Suddenly, a revenge plan popped into Jimmy’s head. Jimmy smirked, sure of himself despite the fact that the plan he had in mind was incredibly risky. Bending down slowly, Jimmy pressed his lips against Gary’s forehead. The latter quickly jumped up in surprise, obviously not expecting to feel the coldness of Jimmy’s lips touch his forehead. “W-What the Hell was that for?” Gary demanded with a red face.

Jimmy snickered in triumph and asked teasingly, “Is that a blush I see, Gary?” 

Gary glared and said in an irritated tone, “Shut up, James. You didn’t even need to do that, I was going to get up.”

“But you were taking forever.” Jimmy argued.

“Well, maybe I was just comfortable in the position I was in. You are pretty soft for someone so hard headed, you know.” Gary said teasingly.

Jimmy’s face suddenly felt warm at Gary’s comment. ‘Oh shit, am I blushing?’ Jimmy wondered to himself.

As if reading his mind, Gary confirmed Jimmy’s fear by snickering and mimicking Jimmy from earlier and asking, “Is that a blush I see, James?” 

“S-Shut up.” Jimmy growled under his breath, the red tint on his face darkening. 

It wasn’t long before the two boys were eventually out the door and on their way to Bullworth. Although Jimmy was originally going to catch the bus to save time, he realised that people would most likely recognize Gary and it would lead to way more trouble than either of them wanted, or Jimmy was awake enough to handle. Even though they had to make sure Gary’s head was down so people couldn’t see his face as they walked, walking was less of a hassle. “You know, James, I’m pretty surprised you got up this early. I always thought you were the type to wake up a few minutes before the bell.” Gary said.

“First of all, a hour before the bell goes isn’t ‘a few minutes’,” Jimmy began, causing Gary to laugh, “second of all, I’m only getting up early so we can go talk to Crabblesnitch and convince him to let you back into the school again.” 

“I still think you’re wasting your time. That crazy old lunatic hates me after what I did to his school.” Gary pointed out.

“Well, I think it’s worth a shot.” Jimmy replied.

Gary rolled his eyes and asked, “I told you, you’re too trusting. What if I do something and end up right back in the asylum?” 

“You wouldn’t do that.” Jimmy answered.

“And what makes you so sure?” Gary asked.

“Because I think you wouldn’t have opened up to me yesterday if you were still an evil sociopath.” Jimmy explained.

“I...don’t know what you’re referring to. As if I would allow myself to open up to a moron like you.” Gary said.

“So that stuff you told me about your dad wasn’t a sign of you opening up to me?” Jimmy asked with a raised eyebrow.

Jimmy tried to take a look at Gary’s face but the latter had turned his face away - most likely because, as Jimmy suspected, he was blushing. “...Don’t expect it to happen often.” Gary huffed. 

Walking around the school, Jimmy was thankful that everyone except for the prefects were still in their in their dorms and hadn’t gone out yet. As the two arrived at the office, Jimmy approached the front desk and said, “We need to see Doctor Crabblesnitch.” 

“You and fifty other people, Hopkins. The doctor is a very busy man, I’m sure whatever you need him for can wait a few minutes.” Mrs. Danvers said, not bothering to look up from some papers she was sorting.

“This is important, we gotta see him now.” Jimmy insisted. 

“I don’t care who this ‘we’ is, you’re going to have to wait-” Mrs. Danvers stopped mid sentence as she finally looked up and saw who was with Jimmy.

Gary smirked and waved at the horrified secretary. “Long time no see, Miss.” Gary said.

“W-What are you doing out of the asylum?” Mrs. Danvers shrieked, jumping out of her chair and taking a few steps back to distance herself from the sociopath.

Mrs. Danvers quickly grabbed the phone and said, “I’m going to call the asylum if you don’t get out of here right now!” 

Jimmy quickly stepped forward and said, “I got him out.” 

“Y-You?” Mrs. Danvers asked, confusion evident in her voice.

“The asylum said that they’d let him go if we can prove he’s changed.” Jimmy explained.

“No, no! Absolutely not! I will not allow such a deranged child in our school, much less than near Doctor Crabblesnitch.” Mrs. Danvers snapped.

Gary sighed and said to Jimmy, “See? I told you this wasn’t going to work, we’re wasting our time here.” 

Before anyone could say anything else, Doctor Crabblesnitch entered the room, saying, “Mrs. Danvers, is everything alright? I heard yelling.”

Doctor Crabblesnitch looked over at Jimmy and as he did so, saw Gary standing next to him. “W-What is he doing here? He should be in the asylum after what he did to me and my school!” Doctor Crabblesnitch roared.

“I was just about to send him away, Doctor.” Mrs. Danvers said.

“So you’re just gonna send him away without even hearing him out?” Jimmy angrily asked.

“Why does it matter to you, Hopkins? Are you not the one who sent him away in the first place?” Doctor Crabblesnitch pointed out.

Gary mumbled under his breath, so only he and Jimmy could hear, “He’s not wrong…” 

Jimmy, however, was still determined to at least try. Although he didn’t know why he was so keen to help Gary Smith of all people, Jimmy knew he wasn’t going to give up trying so easily. “Yeah, I did, but that doesn’t mean I don’t think he can change.” Jimmy insisted.

“Change? Him?” Doctor Crabblesnitch asked, gesturing to Gary with a raised eyebrow before looking back at Jimmy.

Jimmy nodded in response and the room fell silent for a moment as the principle considered Jimmy’s words. “Very well, Hopkins, you’ve done a lot for this school and you know Mr. Smith better than anyone else, therefore, I’m willing to trust your judgement. Perhaps we should discuss this more in my office?” Doctor Crabblesnitch offered.

Mrs. Danvers and Gary both stared at Doctor Crabblesnitch in surprise. Jimmy smirked, having never see Gary look so shocked before. “D-Doctor Crabblesnitch, are you sure this is a good idea?” Mrs. Danvers asked.

“I’ve always said that helping troubled boys was my calling in life, I might as well hear the boy out.” Doctor Crabblesnitch replied.


	6. Talking With Doctor Crabblesnitch

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It is the craziest idea, trying to convince Doctor Crabblesnitch to allow the person who nearly burnt down his entire school to let him come back to school. 
> 
> Sometimes, the craziest ideas work.

“Take a seat, boys, I assume we’re going to be here for a while.” Doctor Crabblesnitch said as he was followed by Jimmy and Gary into his office.

“The last time we were both here was after we fell through the roof, wasn’t it?” Jimmy asked in a way that was meant to be jokingly, however, when he glanced over at Gary, the latter refused to meet Jimmy’s gaze and didn’t respond. 

Jimmy noticed Gary was nervously playing with his sleeve and concluded that Gary must be confused as to why Doctor Crabblesnitch allowed them to plead Gary’s case to him so easily. Knowing Gary, he probably wasn’t expecting things to be so easy. Admittedly, Jimmy was surprised too. “Sir, before you ask, I would like to explain that I’m the one who offered to take responsibility for Gary, he didn’t arrange this with the asylum at all.” Jimmy began.

“I understand that, Hopkins, what I don’t know is why. You were the one most affected by the things Gary did and you risked your life to catch him. Now, however, you’re trying to prove that he’s changed. I’m afraid I can’t understand why, Hopkins.” Doctor Crabblesnitch said.

Jimmy gulped nervously, he knew that someone was going to question his motives eventually and to be honest, he didn’t know why he was doing this either. However, he had to answer Doctor Crabblesnitch somehow… “To be honest, sir, I’m not entirely sure myself.” Jimmy said, noticing Gary tense up out of the corner of his eye.

“I guess a part of it has to do with the fact that he and Pete were my only friends when I first got here and even though that only lasted a bit, I...liked spending time with him, as annoying as he is. Things haven’t really been the same after we stopped being friends, I mean, I still have Pete but no one really liked to push the boundaries like me except Gary. I want my friend back and I...have a feeling Gary isn’t totally to blame for the stuff he did. I think he secretly has a lot of baggage.” without realizing it, Jimmy ended up talking more to Gary than Doctor Crabblesnitch, “I want to help you with whatever’s going on with you.” 

Gary looked over at Jimmy with an expression Jimmy had never seen on him before. As Gary tried to work out if Jimmy was being truthful or not, Jimmy noticed a certain look in Gary’s eyes, a look that was fighting to not be forced down. The look in Gary’s eyes seemed to scream out one thing, “Help!”

Doctor Crabblesnitch seemed to be in deep consideration as he asked, “If I agreed to allow Mr. Smith another chance at the academy, what is your plan from here?”

“We’re probably gonna start making it up to the students and teachers here and then work on the Townies.” Jimmy explained.

“And you, Mr. Smith, are you prepared to go along with this? Are you truly ready to repent for the harm you’ve caused? How do I know that you’re actually serious about this and you actually want to do this?” Doctor Crabblesnitch asked.

That was another question Jimmy was worried about because he knew that Gary was only going along with this for him and it was impossible to expect Gary to have changed his mind so quickly. “I can’t answer that, sir.” Gary mumbled before looking over at Jimmy from the corner of his eyes and adding, “But I’m going to try to fix what I’ve done.” 

Jimmy got the feeling that Gary’s second sentence was actually directed at him more than Doctor Crabblesnitch. Jimmy flashed Gary a small smile, which the latter reciprocated, hesitantly but still reciprocated nonetheless. Suddenly a voice said, “If you need to discuss anything, feel free to take it up with myself or the asylum owner, Miss Walker, sir.” 

Jimmy turned in his chair to see the prosecutor from the asylum standing in the doorway. “Um, where did you come from?” Jimmy asked.

“The asylum informed me of your decision to take responsibility of Mr. Smith. I heard that you’d be coming here and came to wish you luck. Looks like my timing was better than I was expecting.” the prosecutor replied.

“Ah, Graceaphine, it’s been awhile, has it not?” Doctor Crabblesnitch asked.

“I believe it’s only been a few months.” the prosecutor, Graceaphine, said.

“As serious as ever.” Doctor Crabblesnitch said with a brief laugh, “So, you reckon Mr. Smith has changed?” 

“I believe in his ability to correct his mistakes and in Mr. Hopkins’ ability to guide him to do so.” Graceaphine replied.

“I believe you may be right there, as always. Very well, I’ll allow Mr. Smith a second chance at Bullworth.” Doctor Crabblesnitch said with a pleased smile.

Jimmy and Gary exchanged relieved looks. “I can’t believe he said yes.” Jimmy mumbled.

“Wasn’t this your idea?” Gary asked.

“Yeah, but I didn’t think it was actually going to work.” Jimmy replied.

Gary rolled his eyes and sarcastically said, “Great to hear, I’m so looking forward to the next part of your genius plan.” 

The boys both chuckled, feeling the most comfortable they’ve felt in years, oblivious to the fact that Doctor Crabblesnitch and Prosecutor Graceaphine were watching them. “That look on their faces is one I never expected to see.” Doctor Crabblesnitch said.

“Indeed, it appears they have developed feelings for each other.” Graceaphine replied.

“I don’t think they even realised this themselves.” Doctor Crabblesnitch said.

“I’m interested to see where this will lead them.” Graceaphine agreed.

Jimmy and Gary were too busy in a conversation of their own to overhear Graceaphine’s and Doctor Crabblesnitch’s. “You know, I’m starting to think we might be able to pull this off after all.” Gary said.

“Good, then once we actually pull this off, you’ll be able to take back what you said about this not going to work.” Jimmy said.

“Don’t push your luck, James, although I am hanging around a moron so who knows, maybe you’ll be able to make me think like one too.” Gary playfully teased.

“You don’t need my help with being a moron, Gary, trust me.” Jimmy shot back.

Gary laughed and placed his hand on his chest in mocked offense, asking, “How could you say that? Don’t you know that hurt my fragile feelings?” 

Jimmy grinned and replied, “You’ll live.”

Gary scrawled and folded his arms over his chest. “I’m actually really offended right now.” Gary said.

Jimmy laughed and said, “You kinda remind me of Algie or something.”

Gary laughed as well and said, “Well, his bladder is probably as fragile as his feelings.”

Who would’ve thought that only a few months after Jimmy and Gary had the ultimate showdown, they’d be sitting in the principle’s office re-enrolling Gary into Bullworth and joking around like the whole thing had never happened? No one, except this author. “Um…” Gary began but trailed off, looking unsure of what he was about to say.

“Yeah?” Jimmy asked, trying to urge Gary to continue.

“...Thanks for, um, this…Jimmy.” Gary awkwardly said.

Despite Gary’s stuttering making it hard to understand him, Jimmy knew what he was trying to say. Jimmy smiled, not because he wanted or expected thanks but because he knew that it wasn’t easy for Gary to thank someone. “No problem, Gary.” Jimmy replied.


	7. The Bullies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This could go two ways - either Gary actually earns the respect of the bullies or he'll be sent to the hospital in a body bag.

As Jimmy and Gary left the principal's office, Gary asked, “So what's the next part of your big master plan?” 

“We go to the boys dorms so you can change into your uniform before a prefect sees you and busts your ass.” Jimmy answered.

“Says the person who's always walking around wearing anything except the actual school uniform.” Gary pointed out, “And I mean ‘anything’ quite literally. Remember that time you ate the cafeteria food on your first day and got food poisoning and then you started hallucinating and started walking around in that tiny white underwear?” 

Jimmy groaned at the memory and grumbled, “Don't remind me.” 

Gary laughed and said, “It's your fault for not listening to me, I told you not to eat the food in the cafeteria.” 

“Yeah, yeah, you were right. You're great. Whatever.” Jimmy huffed.

“I already know I’m great but it's still satisfying to hear you admit it.” Gary smugly said.

Jimmy rolled his eyes and said, “You wouldn't be so smug if you actually saw what that old hag does to the food.” 

“Hmm, I would rather not.” Gary said.

“You know, this one time I saw her sneezing-” Jimmy began but was cut off by Gary’s hand covering his mouth.

“I’d like to not vomit today, thank you. I’ve done that enough times to last me a lifetime.” Gary said.

“In the asylum?” Jimmy asked. 

In response, Gary shot Jimmy a look, warning him to not ask about it.

.

.

.

.

But since when did Jimmy ever listen to Gary? 

“I’m still waiting for an answer.” Jimmy said.

Gary rolled his eyes and said, “Word of advice, James, if someone glares at you after you ask them a question, it's probably because they don't want to answer you.” 

“C’mon, what's the big deal?” Jimmy asked.

“I just...don't want to talk about it.” Gary replied.

“About what? The asylum? If any of those creeps in there hurt you, we can go beat the crap out of them.” Jimmy said.

“It’s not about the asylum, Jimmy.” Gary huffed, clearly annoyed.

“Then what is it about?” Jimmy asked.

Gary sighed in frustration but didn’t offer Jimmy a response. Before Jimmy could pester him further, Gary headed off to the Boy’s Dorm without another word. “Gary, wait!” Jimmy called after the insane boy as he walked off, only to receive no response, “Aw man…”

By the time Jimmy caught up with Gary and arrived at the Boys Dorm, Gary had already changed into his old green school uniform, although the uniform looked way too loose on him. “I thought they would give you the same size uniform as before.” Jimmy said.

“It is.” Gary replied.

Jimmy concluded that Gary’s time in the asylum must’ve had him lose a lot of weight. “It’s nearly eight. The morons are gonna be waking up soon and I don’t think anyone will be happy to see me.” Gary pointed out.

“It’s America, if anyone tries anything we’ll beat the crap out of them.” Jimmy replied.

“And this is supposed to prove that I’ve changed how? I may be a psychopath but at least I don’t go around beating the shit out of people.” Gary said.

“If anyone in this school actually gave a shit about people getting hurt, they would’ve stopped it from happening years ago.” Jimmy said.

“Good point.” Gary said with a shrug.

“Hey Jimmy-” a familiar voice suddenly said but was cut off by a horror filled gasp.

Standing in the doorway, quivering like a frightened bunny, was Pete Kowalski. “G-Gary!?” Pete shrieked.

“Long time no see, Femboy, as girly as ever, I see.” Gary greeted, a smirk across his face even as Jimmy roughly elbowed him, glaring at him warningly.

Jimmy sighed. Out of everyone who had to find them, why did it have to be Petey of all people? “Look, I know this probably looks like I’ve lost my mind-” Jimmy began but was cut off by a disapproving look from Petey.

“Probably?” Petey questioned with a raised eyebrow.

“Shut up and let me finish.” Jimmy said, unintentionally sounding harsher than he meant to, causing Petey to flinch and even Gary to raise an eyebrow.

“Sorry, Petey. I, uh, didn’t mean to snap at you.” Jimmy quickly apologised, “Anyways, um, like I was saying, the asylum have let him out so that he can prove that he’s no longer a threat to society or some crap and I’m helping him.” 

“You’re what!?” Petey shrieked. 

“Geez, Jimmy, couldn’t you have made it sound a tiny bit better?” Gary, “You’re talking as if I’m a psychopath or something-”

Gary stopped mid sentence, the room falling silent for a moment.

“Oh yeah…” 

“Let me get this straight,” Petey said, “You’re helping Gary? The same Gary who turned the entire school against you, tried to kill you multiple times, bullied heaps of innocent people and ruined many lives - including yours!?” 

Jimmy shrugged, “Yep, pretty much.”

“Are you insane?” Petey exclaimed.

“I’ve been asking the same thing.” Gary said.

“I’m tempted to say ‘yes’...” Jimmy mumbled underneath his breath.

Jimmy was well aware that what he was doing was stupid, it was insane, it was asinine, it was ludicrous...but then again, so is having a fistfight on the roof of your school soooo…

“Petey, Gary’s changed! He’s not like that anymore. He’s actually not that bad of a person when you get to know him.” Jimmy said.

Gary would’ve snorted with laughter if he wasn’t so taken aback by Jimmy’s words. “How do you know that?” Petey asked, “You should hate him more than anybody.”

“He’s got a point there.” Gary said, the grin on his face showing amusement but the flicker of sadness in his eyes contradicted that amusement. 

“Maybe, but I don’t.” Jimmy replied firmly, determination burning in his eyes.

“Jimmy, think about it - why are you even trusting him?” Petey asked.

“Because I care about him!” Jimmy snapped, not thinking twice about it - or at all, for that matter.

It took a few moments for Jimmy to realise what he just said and when realisation hit him, he almost looked as shocked as Petey and Gary.

“Wait...Shit!” Jimmy swore under his breath, feeling his cheeks turn bright red.

Jimmy forced himself to catch Gary’s gaze and to his surprise, not only was Gary’s cheeks equally as red but his eyes were filled with confusement and sadness - definitely not what Jimmy was expecting. Before Jimmy could explain himself, Gary ran out of the room at lightning speed, leaving the other two boys behind. “GARY, WAIT!” Jimmy called after him, running after him without a second thought whilst ignoring Petey’s calls from behind him.

Following Gary down the corridor, Jimmy was only a couple of seconds from being able to stop Gary from slamming his dormitory door in Jimmy’s face. Knocking on the door, Jimmy asked, “Gary, are you okay? What happened? Was it because of what I said?”

“Go away!” Gary snapped from the other side of the door, his tone angry and bitter.

“I’m not going to leave you-” Jimmy was cut off by a sudden yell from the other side of the door.

“Leave me a-alone!” 

Jimmy noticed that the last word, Gary uttered was not as angry and bitter as the others had been but more sad - Gary’s voice even broke and it sounded like he was sobbing as he uttered that word. Just when Jimmy thought Gary wasn’t going to say anything else, he continued, “I knew it. I knew you were planning on getting close to me just so you can hurt me - pretending that you care about me, hah! What a load of bull-”

Jimmy frowned in both confusion and hurt at Gary’s words, “I do care! What are you talking about?”

“My dad would tell me the same thing, you know - ‘I’m buying you all these toys because I care about you.’ ‘I’m only being hard on you because I care.’ ‘I’m only BEATING THE CRAP out of you because I FUCKING CARE.’” Gary’s tone had changed now to desperate, almost psychotic - it was similar to how someone who had been nothing but tortured all their lives would sound.

It was then that Jimmy realised two things, first of all, the word “care” triggers bad memories for Gary which Jimmy unintentionally triggered, second of all, the concept of being genuinely cared and loved for was foreign to Gary - he never had anyone in his entire life actually care and love him. 

And third of all, Jimmy really wanted to kick Gary’s dad in the balls at that moment.

Jimmy wanted to respond - to tell Gary that he was wrong - but for some reason, there was a lump in his throat that prevented him from doing so. Jimmy felt tears pricking his own eyes and quickly moved to wipe them with the base of his palm. 

Why on Earth was he crying? 

What could possibly be causing him to actually cry?

Wait…

Could it be that Jimmy was actually crying over Gary, of all people?

Did Jimmy actually sympathise with him?

“What was your plan, I wonder? Help me makes things ‘right’ and look like a hero, only to humiliate me in front of the entire school and frame me as some murderous psychopath so I would get set back to the asylum and eventually lose my mind? Is that what you wanted, James?” Gary asked, his voice dripping with poison.

“No!” Jimmy insisted, finally finding his voice, “I’m not like that, Gary. I’m different from your father. I really do care about you-” 

“Bullshit! He told me the exact same crap and look where that got me. Do you really think you can prove to me that you’re different from him?” Gary asked.

For once, Jimmy didn’t hesitate. 

“Yes, I can.” Jimmy said, prepared to do something more riskier than anything else he had done thus far, “There’s something that separates me from your father drastically.”

“Oh, I’m sure this will be good.” Gary sarcastically said, “And what, pray tell, is it?” 

“I love you!” 

A deadly silence lingered in the air for what felt like an eternity as soon as Jimmy uttered those words. Jimmy wasn’t sure if Gary was just surprised or assumed he was lying and walked out. Either way, Jimmy decided to continue. At this point, he couldn’t give a fuck whether the other guys in the dorm could hear them, what was important at that moment was Gary. 

“Has your dad ever said that to you, Gary? Like actually said it and meant it?” Jimmy asked, not really expecting a reply. 

“No, he hasn’t. No one ever has.” Gary replied from the other side of the door, his voice uncharacteristically quiet and shaky, a hint of uncertainty in his tone.

“Well, I guess that makes me the first.” Jimmy said.

There was a pause and Jimmy wasn’t sure whether or not Gary believed him, until the boy asked, “Do...Do you really mean that?” 

“Of course I do, I never say shit that I don’t mean.” Jimmy paused, then thought about it for a moment, “Actually, once I did say something I didn’t mean.” 

“Once being right now?” Gary asked.

“No, that time on the rooftop when I said that you were dead and I hated you - I didn’t mean it. I probably should have but I could never bring myself to hate you, I still can’t. Even as you were pretending to be my friend, even as you betrayed me and turned the whole school against me, I never hated you and I definitely didn’t want you to die.” Jimmy explained.

“I wasn’t pretending to be your friend at first.” Gary said, “I really did want to be friends - never had one so I thought it might be fun - but I ended up convincing myself that you were just going to backstab me and hurt me just like everyone else in my life has and that I needed to backstab you first before you can do it to me…” 

“I was wrong, wasn’t I? You’re not like that. I see that now...For once I actually had a real friend and I pushed you away...I’m sorry, Jimmy…” Gary continued, his voice beginning to break.

“If we’re apologising for misjudging each other, then you deserve an apology too.” Jimmy said, “After you betrayed me, I took you for some crazed psychopath. I didn’t think about why, I just thought about what you did. Maybe if I had, we wouldn’t be having this conversation now and things would be normal.” 

“Stand back.” Gary suddenly said.

“What?” Jimmy asked, confused.

“Stand back, I’m opening the door.”

“Oh…”

Jimmy backed away from the door and sure enough, the sound of the door unlocking was heard and the door promptly swung open, revealing a very messy looking Gary. Gary’s eyes were red from crying and there were tears stains down his cheeks - a sight Jimmy never thought he’d see. The boys stood there in awkward silence, neither quite sure what to do next. “Jimmy…?” Gary quietly asked.

“Y-Yeah?” Jimmy asked.

“Kiss me.”

“What?”

“I said kiss me.”

At first Jimmy thought Gary was joking but after seeing the seriousness in his eyes, Jimmy knew he was being deadly serious. Jimmy gulped nervously.

“In the middle of the hallway?”

“Yes.”

It wasn’t that Jimmy didn’t want to kiss Gary, it was more like…

“What if someone hears us?”

“Who gives a fuck if they do?”

“Okay then, whatever you say, Gary.” 

“Damn fucking right whatever I fucking sa-”

Jimmy cut Gary off by leaning in and pressing his lips against Gary’s. To his surprise, Gary’s lips were softer than how Jimmy imagined - not that he thought about kissing Gary before…

To be honest, though, Jimmy always thought Gary’s lips would be rather rough and his tongue would be like sandpaper but it was anything but. Perhaps the biggest surprise is that rather than the confident, great kisser Jimmy had imagined him to be, Gary was instead shy and hesitant, mostly following Jimmy’s lead. That wasn’t a problem though, it was better than the whores at school who would throw themselves at Jimmy and cover him with their slobber - the break was kind of relieving. 

Jimmy’s hands gripped around Gary’s waist, making no attempt to avoid brushing against Gary’s butt just to see the psycho’s reaction - and it was so worth it. The way Gary would gasp, squeak and blush madly at even the slightest touch amused Jimmy to no end. Gary’s hands, meanwhile were hanging loosely around Jimmy’s shoulder. Gary leaned into Jimmy’s embrace, his eyes fluttering closed as Jimmy’s tongue entered his mouth. It wasn’t much of a surprise, considering how much prior experience he had but Jimmy was extremely good with his tongue. A low moan escaped Gary's mouth, which he could feel Jimmy smirk to in response.

After a while - but definitely not as long as Gary would’ve liked - Jimmy finally pulled away so they could both catch their breaths. However, as soon as they had both caught their breaths, Jimmy wasted no time in resuming his assault on Gary’s mouth, biting, licking and sucking at his soft flesh. Gary had a feeling Jimmy was purposely trying to get as many moans out of him as possible and would’ve pointed it out if he wasn’t too busy trying not to wake the entire dorm up. Gary felt Jimmy pushing against, leading him into the dorm room and shutting the door behind him, careful not to break the kiss. Again, normally Gary would demand to know what Jimmy was trying to do to him but then again, it was never a normal day if he was making out with Jimmy Hopkins.

Jimmy pushed Gary down onto the bed and climbed on top of him. Immediately, his hands found their way to Gary’s vest, nearly tearing it off Gary’s small chest. Throwing the vest to the side, Jimmy unbuttoned the top buttons of Gary’s shirt, exposing his neck. Before Gary realised what Jimmy was doing, Jimmy’s lips were already on the newly exposed flesh, gently kissing the soft skin. “Jimmy…” Gary moaned as Jimmy’s lips brushed against a particularly sensitive area.

Jimmy continued to play with that area, moving onto licking the skin. Gary bit his lip, trying to stifle his moans. 

He wasn’t going to admit it out loud but damn Jimmy was good! 

Gary gasped loudly as Jimmy bit down on his neck and began to suck on it, giving it a huge, prominent hickey. Satisfied with the mark he had created, Jimmy finally pulled away and got off of Gary, much to Gary’s disappointment, who wined in disappointment as Jimmy got off him. Jimmy smirked at Gary’s wines and said, “Come on, class is about to start.”

“Screw that, this is more interesting.” Gary said.

“True, but skipping school on your first day back isn’t gonna do much for your reputation.” Jimmy replied.

Gary groaned in defeat and sat up, however, a sight that he was greeted with caused him to pale. It took Jimmy a minute to figure out what was wrong, but after following Gary’s gaze, Jimmy saw what Gary was looking at.

Petey was standing in the doorway with a bright red blush on his face. 

“Fuck.” Jimmy swore, “Petey, I-”

Before he could respond, Petey ran off. 

“Shit.” Jimmy sighed.

“Should you go after him?” Gary asked.

“What about you?” Jimmy asked.

“I’ll be fine, Jim. I don’t want your friendship to suffer because of me.” Gary replied.

“It won’t suffer because of you, if Petey really is my friend, he’ll accept what I’ve decided to do.” Jimmy said.

The bell sounded and everyone finally began to leave their rooms. As soon as Gary fixed his clothes, Jimmy and Gary headed to the first class of the day. “So, what’s your favourite class?” Jimmy asked Gary as the walked through the halls, ignoring the glares and surprised looks from the people passing by.

“None of them - they’re all boring. Although at least with chemistry, I can always hope some moron blows themself up.” Gary replied, a grin on his face.

“NO!!! DON’T WORRY, JIMMY, RUSSELL WILL SAVE YOU!” a voice shouted from behind them.

Before either one could react, Russell was charging at them at full speed and in a matter of seconds, Gary was knocked to the floor, clutching his stomach. Gary groaned in pain and Jimmy had to resist the urge to laugh as he grabbed Russell's arm before he could punch Gary’s face in. “Russell, it’s okay. He’s cool.” Jimmy said.

“Huh?” Russell asked, looking between Gary and Jimmy with confusion.

Russell being confused wasn’t an unusual thing but this time, it was justified considering Jimmy was standing up for the biggest psychopath to ever walk through Bullworth. “He’s been let out of the asylum to prove that he’s no longer a threat to society or some shit and I’m helping him.” Jimmy explained.

“Huh?” Russell asked again.

Jimmy sighed - he should’ve known it would be too much for Russell to comprehend. “Gary is good now so Russell doesn’t need to smash him.” Jimmy said, trying to explain as simply as possible.

“No...smash?” Russell asked and Jimmy nodded in confirmation.

Russell looked down at Gary, who was still on the floor and said, “Oh, Russell sorry.”

Jimmy expected Gary to come back with some snide remark like, “You better be, you dumb ape.” 

However, to Jimmy’s surprise, Gary replied, “Uh, that’s okay. I can’t really blame you for wanting me dead.” 

Jimmy was surprised at Gary’s response - his tone wasn’t even sarcastic. “Do you need a hand getting up?” Jimmy asked, extending his hand to Gary.

Gary took Jimmy’s hand and got up, mumbling under his breath, “Thanks.” 

Jimmy placed a hand on Gary’s forehead. “What the Hell are you doing?” Gary asked.

“Do you have a temperature, Gary?” Jimmy asked, “You’re not being a douche for once.” 

Gary rolled his eyes and smacked Jimmy’s hand away, dryly saying, “Ha. Ha. Ha. You’re so funny, James.” 

All of a sudden, Gary’s eyes widened as he asked, “Wait a second, what time is it?”

“Uh, 9:15am, why-” Jimmy paused, realising what Gary meant.

“Aw, fuck!”

“Come on, let’s go!” Gary said, already walking ahead of Jimmy. 

“Hey, wait! You don’t even know where we’re going!” Jimmy pointed out as he followed Gary. 

“Of course I know, we have chemistry, right?” Gary asked.

Jimmy was actually taken aback by the fact Gary knew what class they had - despite how long he’d been at Bullworth, Jimmy still needed to check his timetable every morning to see what subjects he had. “Why’re you so surprised, James? I already told you, I’m a genius. A couple of months in the asylum isn’t going to make me forget that easily.” Gary said.

“Well then, if you’re such a genius, do you remember where the chemistry classroom is?” Jimmy asked.

“Nope, I have absolutely no idea...It’s not as if we’re standing right in front of it.” Gary sarcastically said, gesturing to the door next to him which had a sign next to it saying, ‘CHEMISTRY’.

“...Oh.” Jimmy quietly said.

Gary walked over to the door but hesitated just as his hand landed on the door handle. “Do you think you should go in there first?” Gary asked.

“Why?” Jimmy asked, tilting his head in confusion.

“I don’t think anyone will be expecting my psychopathic self to casually waltz through the door.” Gary pointed out.

“Good point.” Jimmy said, “I’ll go in first, if you want, but are you asking this because you’re scared of how they’ll all react?”

Gary flinched but otherwise didn’t say anything. Seeing Gary’s reaction, Jimmy knew he hit the nail on the head. “You don’t have to be. If anyone tries anything, I’ll beat the crap out of them and make them into my own science experiment - I’ll test to see how many punches they can take before they get knocked out.” Jimmy said.

“Then you would get in trouble.” Gary pointed out.

“Like I give a fuck, it wouldn’t be anything new. Besides, it’s worth it. After all, we’re-” Jimmy paused.

What exactly was Jimmy to Gary? Friends? Enemies? Lovers? They never really discussed that whole make-out session from earlier but Gary seemed to like it so...Are they together or just friends? Could they even classify themselves as friends? 

“We’re in this together…” Jimmy finished, sounding slightly less confident than before.

“Alright then…” Gary quietly mumbled, “If you insist.” 

Gary moved out of the way to allow Jimmy to open the door and enter the classroom first. It only occured to Jimmy after he stepped walked into the classroom that he had forgot about something - something pretty important.

Standing at a desk in the back of the room was Zoe Taylor, Jimmy’s ex-girlfriend. 

There wasn’t really a big sob story behind why they broke up. Zoe just said she wasn’t ready for a boyfriend but they decided to remain as friends. 

Having his ex-girlfriend and his current-possible-boyfriend-or-whatever-Gary-was in the same classroom might be a bit awkward…

“What’s wrong?” Gary asked, noticing Jimmy pale.

“Nothing.” Jimmy replied, walking over to the closest vacant table.

Gary followed Jimmy inside and no sooner as he did so, the room was filled with gasps and looks of horror. Gary looked down to avoid looking at their terror filled faces and glares. Even Dr. Watts looked like he was about to jump out of his skin. “AH! THE DEVIL!” Dr. Watts shrieked, “STAY BACK FOUL DEMON OF HELL!”

“Sir, it’s not the Devil, it’s just Gary.” Jimmy said.

“I know who he is, boy! He’s WORSE than the devil!” Dr. Watts exclaimed.

Gary winced at the insult. “He’s not that bad, sir, he’s changed - the asylum let him out so he could prove that and I’m helping him.” Jimmy explained.

“Wait, Jimmy, why are YOU helping Gary!?” Zoe asked from the back of the classroom, “I thought you hated him?”

Jimmy looked down to avoid the disappointed and confused glare Zoe was giving him, replying, “I know but he’s changed and I believe in him-” 

“But...why?” Constantinos asked, giving Jimmy the same confused look as the rest of the class.

“Because I want to! My reasons are none of your business.” Jimmy spat back, “If anyone has a problem with that or with Gary, you can sort it out with me.” 

Jimmy cracked his knuckles and glared threateningly at his classmates, making the implications behind his actions quite clear. Everyone finally shut up at that. While no one accepted Gary or wanted him near them, they also didn't want to deal with a pissed off Jimmy. “R-Right then…” Dr. Watts said, also appearing intimidated by Jimmy, “Now then, where would you like to sit, Smith? I believe there’s a vacant seat next to Northwick-"

“Actually, sir, Kirby is sitting next to me.” Trent explained, cutting the teacher off, “He’s just late.” 

“Then what about you, Papadopoulos? You don’t mind Gary sitting next to you, do you?” Dr. Watts asked.

“Um, well, the chair next to me is kind of...wet.” Algie replied with a small, sheepish smile.

Everyone in the class groaned, realising what the wetness is from.

“Oh come on, Algie!” Jimmy groaned, “You know what? How about Gary just sits with me?”

“That’s a wonderful idea!” Dr. Watts said.

The entire class sighed in relief, glad to not have to sit next to Gary. As soon as Gary sat down next to Jimmy, everyone on that side of the room quickly moved to the other side, the rest of the class bundling together to be as far away from Gary as possible. Gary sighed quietly, not expecting anyone to hear him but was surprised when Jimmy placed a hand on his shoulder and said, “Ignore them, they’re just being assholes.”

“I think I preferred it when they just ignored me.” Gary mumbled back.

“They’ll come to terms with the fact you’ve changed eventually. They just need some time.” Jimmy whispered.

“Have I changed, though?” Gary asked.

“Of course you have-" Jimmy began but was cut off by Dr. Watts.

“Now then, today class we’ll be conducting an experiment. Be sure to follow the instructions and for God’s sake, DO NOT EAT ANYTHING!” Dr. Watts said.

Throughout the lesson, the class followed Dr. Watts’ instructions. Jimmy was so surprised at how well Gary was performing - he was even further ahead than the teacher. Jimmy thought that since Gary hadn’t done this in awhile, he might need to offer him so help but to his surprise, Gary was the one helping him out. “Don’t burn the blue substance, you need to burn the red! The blue causes a highly flammable gas.” Gary warned Jimmy, noticing Jimmy about the grab the wrong material.

“...I knew that.” Jimmy mumbled, putting in the correct substance. 

The end of the period came shockingly quick and soon they found themselves in the cafeteria. By now, there was a significant decrease in the shocked faces and gasps they were getting but that was to be expected - this was Bullworth, everyone knew everyone else’s secrets within three seconds.

“I see this place is still like a zoo.” Gary said as the two sat down on the end of a table.

“Yep, I might be the king now but there’s no way in Hell I’m messing with these psychos, not unless I have to.” Jimmy said.

“Can’t really complain, I’ve always liked animals.” Gary cheekily replied, causing Jimmy to laugh.

The sound of screaming suddenly filled the cafeteria. “What the heck was that?” Jimmy asked.

“Probably someone getting the shit beaten out of them.” Gary replied, almost casually.

As if on cue, a young boy ran into the cafeteria, Russell and the rest of the bullies closely on his tail. “Get back here so Russell can smash you!” Russell yelled at the boy, who ran into the kitchen in a desperate attempt to hide from them. 

“HEY! WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING, YOU LITTLE BRAT?” Enda could be heard yelling from the kitchen. 

Jimmy sighed and said, “I should probably go sort this out.” 

Standing up, Jimmy approached Russell and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Russell, what the Hell is going on?” Jimmy asked.

“The little squirt thought it would be funny to mess with us by giving Wade a wedgie in front of the entire class.” Davis explained, “We’re going to teach the little shit some respect.” 

“Well, I doubt he wouldn’t humiliate him Wade didn’t do something to him first. Are you sure Wade wasn’t bullying him?” Jimmy asked.

“How should we know? We bully a lot of shits. We don’t keep track of who we’ve bullied and who we haven’t.” Trent said.

Jimmy sighed, placing his forehead on his head. “Maybe if you guys didn’t bully everyone, it wouldn’t have happened.” Gary pointed out from where he was sitting behind Jimmy.

All of the eyes in the cafeteria turned to Gary and for a moment, Jimmy was worried Gary might get his lights punched out. Gary didn’t seem fazed, however, as he just shrugged and said, “Just saying.”

“What did you just say?” Wade sneered, glaring at Gary.

Gary sighed, “I’ll repeat myself.”

Standing up, Gary approached Wade and said, “The kid probably did it as revenge for all the other people you’ve bullied. Seems to me that this was something that was coming for a long time. If you don’t want it happening to you, don’t do it to others.” 

With that, Gary promptly walked out of the cafeteria, not waiting for a response from any of the bullies, who were all too shocked to respond. Even Jimmy himself was surprised but quickly got himself together and followed Gary out of the cafeteria. “Dude, that was awesome!” Jimmy exclaimed.

“Why thank you.” Gary replied with a grin.

“So where are we going exactly?” Jimmy asked.

Gary shrugged, “I was just getting as far away as possible before those brain dead pigs have enough time to process what I said in their tiny brains and come after me.” 

Jimmy laughed and suggested, “Well, we have English next. We can hide from them there.” 

“Isn’t that a bit obvious?” Gary asked.

“Nah, those idiots hate classrooms, they don’t go anywhere near them unless they have to.” Jimmy replied.

“Well, in that case let’s go.” Gary said.

As they walked to the classroom, Gary asked, “What time is it, anyways?” 

“We still have about twenty minutes before class, I think.” Jimmy replied, glancing down at the watch on his wrist.

They soon arrived at the classroom. Leaning against the wall next to it, Gary asked, “Are we going to talk about earlier?” 

“When you completely owned those idiots?” Jimmy asked.

“Not that, I mean…” Gary’s face turned dark red as he quietly said, “When you kissed me…”

Jimmy’s face also darkened as he quietly said, “Oh...That.”

“Were you only doing that to cheer me up or because I asked you to?” Gary asked.

“What? No! Of course not!” Jimmy replied, “I already told you I love you, didn’t I?”

“I know, it’s just…” Gary trailed off, “I’m just not used to...this.” 

“What?” Jimmy asked, tilting his head in confusion.

“Being cared for, being loved. I’m not used to anyone giving a shit about me without having some ulterior motive.” Gary replied, “Don’t get me wrong, it’s a lot better than being raped mercilessly by my so-called father but at the same time…”

Gary brought his gaze up to meet Jimmy’s, whispering quietly under his breath, “I’m scared.”

“Don’t be.” Jimmy said, cupping the other’s chin with his hand, “I’m not going to hurt you and I’ll make sure no one else does either. We’re in this together.” 

Bringing the other’s lips closer, Jimmy kissed Gary before the latter could say anything else. After overcoming his initial surprise at the unexpected kiss, Gary eventually allowed his eyes to close and enjoyed the kiss...

“Hopkins, what the fuck!?” 

Well, until they were rudely interrupted…

Reluctantly pulling away, the two boys turned to see Jimmy’s ex-girlfriend, Zoe, standing there. Zoe’s face was scrunched up into a sneer and her hands were on her hips, indicating she definitely wasn’t impressed by the sight. “When you walked into class with this sociopath and claimed that he’d changed and you two were friends, I had thought you’d cracked but KISSING him!? He ruined your life, how can you seriously kiss him?” Zoe fumed.

As much as he liked Zoe, Jimmy couldn’t help but become slightly annoyed by her words as he sarcastically replied, “Well, pretty easily actually. You see, I just bring his lips closer like this and then I-” 

As Jimmy was about to kiss Gary again, Zoe grunted and covered her eyes, saying, “Don’t even thinking about making out in front of me! To think I thought you were better than...him.”

Gary opened his mouth to say something but before he could, Zoe stomped off, leaving the two boys on their own.

“...Well...shit.” 

Sighing, Gary said, “Jimmy, if...us...is going to get between you and Zoe...I know how close you are with her so-” 

“Don’t worry about it.” Jimmy replied, cutting Gary off, “I would rather be with you, anyways.”

“So, um, what did you want to ask me? Before Zoe came?” Jimmy asked.

“Are we...a couple?” Gary asked, face turning bright red at his own question.

Jimmy also blushed at the question. Despite the fact they had kissed several times, jimmy never thought about it before - he never officially asked Gary to be his boyfriend. “Well, do you want to be?” Jimmy asked.

Gary’s blush darkened as he deadpanned, “You would think I would’ve pushed you away the first twenty times we kissed if I had a problem with it.” 

“So then...Will you be my boyfriend?” Jimmy asked.

“Hmm, let me think about that for a moment…” Gary said, pretending to be thinking hard about Jimmy’s question.

Suddenly, Gary kissed Jimmy on the lips. “Of course I’ll be your boyfriend, you moron.” Gary answered.

Grinning, Jimmy kissed Gary’s lips again, the kiss lingering a little longer than previously. After eventually pulling away, Jimmy leaned his forehead against Gary’s said, “I love you, Gary.”

Smiling, Gary replied, “I love you too.”

Jimmy’s eyes widened in surprise at the realisation of what Gary had said. He hadn’t expected Gary to be ready to admit his feelings out loud yet, considering all the trauma he had been through previously. Gary must’ve noticed the other’s surprise as he asked, “What?”

“Nothing, it’s just...I didn’t think you’d be comfortable with saying that after...you know.” Jimmy awkwardly explained, hoping he didn’t somehow offend Gary.

Instead, Gary just smiled and said, “I didn’t think so either but I have to admit, I feel more comfortable around you than anyone else I’ve ever known. It’s easy for me to open up and admit how I’m feeling ‘cause it’s you.”

Gary blushed, muttering under his breath, “Holy shit, I sound like a moron…”

Grinning, Jimmy playfully replied, “Don’t worry, you always sound like a moron anyways.” 

Gary playfully punched Jimmy’s arm as he retorted, “Says the person who always fails geography and maths.” 

“How the heck am I supposed to know the states of America or the size of Eunice’s butt compared to the moon!?” Jimmy exclaimed, causing Gary to burst into laughter.

“Hey, Smith!” a voice shouted, interrupting the boys.

The two pulled away and looked over at Trent, who was walking up to them. “Oh great, they’ve found us.” Jimmy said.

“Well, I’m dead.” Gary said.

“What do you want on your tombstone?” Jimmy half-jokingly asked.

“My life sucked.” Gary replied, expression serious.

Turning to Trent, Gary said, “Look, if this is about what I said earlier, I’m not going to apologise. What I stated was the truth and-”

“We don’t want an apology.” Trent said, surprising both Jimmy and Gary, “It takes a lot of balls to stand up to us, especially Russell. We respect what you did. Russell wants me to invite you to The Hole after school today for a good-old-fashioned fist fight.” 

“Is this a trick to lure me there so your ape of an leader can beat the crap out of me?” Gary asked skeptically with a raised eyebrow.

Trent blinked in confusion and slowly asked, “Um...A trick to lure...what?”

Rolling his eyes, Gary said, “Nevermind, I forgot you morons can’t process more than a couple of words at a time. I should’ve known you wouldn’t have the brain capacity to come up with a plan like that.” 

Folding his arms, Gary said, “Fine, I’ll go but the moment I sense bullshit, I’m out.” 

“Good. See you then.” Trent said before leaving.

As soon as Trent was gone, Jimmy turned to Gary and asked, “Are you sure this is a good idea?” 

“Nope.” Gary replied as the bell went off, “Oh look, time for class.” 

Gary promptly walked into the classroom before Jimmy could say anything else about the events that had just occurred. Inside the classroom, the news had either spread so quickly that Galloway already knew and wasn’t surprised to see Gary or he was too drunk to care. Judging from the beer bottle in his hand, it seemed to be the latter scenario. “Ah, Gary, welcome back.” Galloway said between hiccups.

“Uh, thank you, sir…” Gary awkwardly replied before whispering to Jimmy, “Is he more drunk than before? I thought you got rid of that oversized dickhead who was harassing him?” 

“I did but recently Mr. Galloway has started drinking again. I think Hattrick probably has something to do with it.” Jimmy whispered back as the two sat down at a desk. 

Like normal, Mr. Galloway handed them all “tests” to complete - which was actually just unscrambling some words. Unlike chemistry, which Gary breezed through easily, Gary often kept looking up from his work with a bored expression and Jimmy had to keep reminding him to do his work. “Are you bored or can you just not think of any words?” Jimmy asked.

That seemed to annoy Gary, who replied, “Of course I know the answers. This is just sooo boring.” 

“Oh yeah?” Jimmy asked, “Prove it. Whichever of us has less words by the end of the period has to buy the other a soda.” 

Gary smirked and replied, “You’re on.” 

That finally got Gary to actually focus on his work and literally the second as the bell went off for the end of period, Gary jumped up and exclaimed, “Done! I got all of the words!” 

Jimmy looked over at Gary’s paper in disbelief and saw that Gary had indeed gotten every single word in the unscramble. “The fuck!?” Jimmy asked, “How the Hell did you get all of those? I didn’t even get half of them!”

Gary smirked and replied, “I already told you, James, I’m a genius.”

Jimmy realised that perhaps the contest wasn’t such a great idea - it only served in stroking Gary’s ego. “Nice work, Gary.” Mr. Galloway said after dismissing the class and overhearing the boy’s conversation, “You might have some competition there, Jimmy.” 

Galloway had meant it as a joke but the smug grin on Gary’s face showed that he definitely did not take it as a joke. 

‘Great, more shit to stroke his ego with.’ Jimmy grumpily thought, sulking slightly.

“Not much of a competition when we already know who’s better.” Gary playfully said with a smirk - although his tone wasn’t at all mocking like Jimmy expected.

“Oh, fuck you.” Jimmy said with a small smirk.

As the two boys walked out of the classroom, Jimmy said, “So are you going to goo fight Russell now at The Hole or whatever the Hell it is called?” 

Gary shrugged, responding, “I guess so. I already told them I would do it so I can’t really back down now.” 

“I’m coming with you, of course.” Jimmy stated, making it clear that he was not requesting to come - his presence was non-negotiable. 

“Of course, you clearly have nothing else important to do rather than following me around like a puppy dog.” Gary teasingly said with a smirk.

Jimmy glared and pouted, saying, “Fine then, if you would rather me not come-”

“I never said that.” Gary scoffed, folding his arms and looking away from Jimmy to hide the light pink blush on his face.

Jimmy grinned and said, “Well, in that case, let’s go.” 

As the two arrived at The Hole, Jimmy couldn’t help but notice how well Gary navigated himself around the boiler, despite it being ages since he had last stepped foot into the room. It was similar to when they had previously been to The Hole - the day when Gary first betrayed Jimmy. Just like before, Jimmy had blindly allowed Gary to lead him, following Gary without the faintest idea of what he was planning. This time, however, Gary was the one going to fight in The Hole - albeit voluntarily and under arguably better circumstances. The place still smelled like steam and chemicals, Jimmy noted. Jimmy remembered how Gary had acted so distant that day - the contrast between his personality then and how he was now was so drastic, someone who did not know Gary like Jimmy did would probably think they were different people. Gary had seemed so confident that day, so excited to watch Jimmy suffer. Jimmy’s eyes locked with Gary’s for a brief moment and shyly, a small smile snuck it’s way onto Gary’s face before his gaze quickly turned away. “Are you nervous?” Jimmy asked him as Gary pressed a switch to open a door. 

“Not particularly.” Gary responded, “I may prefer challenges involving my brain than strength but I’m sure I can take on those morons easily.” 

Jimmy noticed a small flicker in Gary’s eyes which he could not identify. Pausing for a moment, Jimmy asked, “Are you scared?”

Gary froze but did not turn to look at Jimmy. Silence hanged in the air for a couple of moments until Gary eventually spoke.

“Of?” 

Jimmy shrugged.

“Anything.” 

Gary didn’t move nor did he respond and for a moment, Jimmy wondered if Gary was considering strangling him to death for asking such a personal question. 

“I’m scared…” Gary began but paused, hesitating for a moment before continuing, “I’m scared that once I step into The Hole and begin fighting him, I might not be able to stop…” 

Gary chuckled bitterly.

“I am a sociopath, remember?” 

Jimmy frowned, asking, “You’re worried that you might end up injuring Russell?” 

“Don’t say worried.” Gary said, although making sure not to snap at Jimmy, “It makes me sound pathetic.” 

Jimmy rolled his eyes, replying, “You are pathetic.” 

Gary turned to face Jimmy, glaring at the other boy. Jimmy took the opportunity of Gary facing him to step forward and peck the other boy’s lips. Gary’s eyes went wide, his face turning dark red. However, he made no attempt to push the auburn haired boy away, even allowing himself to lean into the kiss. Gary had to remind himself that it was normal for him to kiss Jimmy now - they were dating, after all. 

Jimmy eventually pulled away, cupping Gary’s cheek. “You’ll be fine, love.” Jimmy said, admiring the glow on Gary’s face at the nickname, “I’ll be right here with you. I believe in you, Gary. I know you’re not going to harm anyone.” 

Gary smiled, muttering quietly under his breath, “Thank you, Jimmy.”

“No problem.” Jimmy responded, smiling back, “Now let’s get going before Russell gets impatient and smashes your head in before the fight even starts.” 

Gary scoffed, folding his arms, although the playful smile on his lips gave him away, “I already told you, Jimmy. I could take those morons down easily.” 

Jimmy grinned - this cocky attitude Gary was sporting was exactly the Gary Jimmy knew, not the psychopathic one but the one who befriended Jimmy from the start and showed him around the school.

As the two finally arrived at The Hole, the sound of cheering was so loud Jimmy thought he might lose his hearing. All eyes turned to them - there were at least fifty pairs of eyes all locked on the two of them. “Good luck.” Jimmy whispered to Gary, the sociopath nodding softly before stepping forward to the entry to one side of the arena. 

Across from Gary stood Russell, surrounded by Trent and Wade on either side of him. “So the pipsqueak actually came.” Trent noted, smirking mockingly.

“Ready to get your face smashed in, princess?” Wade asked Gary, practically spitting the last word at Gary. 

Gary’s eyes narrowed into a glare, growling angrily at the two bullies. “The fuck did you just say to me?” Gary hissed.

Jimmy could practically feel the anger radiating off of Gary and for a moment, he became worried about what Gary would do. “Awwh, did I offend the little princess?” Wade mocked with a laugh.

Gary’s fists clenched and he didn’t say anything for a couple of moments, the bullies and their laughter filling the air for the moment. 

“I would rather be a princess than a colossal dick.” 

The room went silent at Gary’s words and Jimmy couldn’t help but laugh at the shocked expressions on Trent and Wade’s faces. “The fuck is that supposed to mean, asshole?” Wade snapped, about to step forward to get into The Hole himself when Russell stopped him.

“No more talking. Now Russell smash!” Russell said.

The language Russell spoke was a strange language which was foreign to most people - in other words, people who did not speak moron. However, for once what Russell was saying was slightly comprehensible.

He wanted to beat the shit out of Gary.

“Well then, what are we waiting for?” Gary asked, elegantly jumping down into The Hole.

Gary stretched his arms out as he confidently said, “I’m waiting.” 

Russell jumped down as well, pounding his fists together, causing the sound of his knuckles cracking to echo throughout the room. Suddenly, Russell was charging at Gary at high speed. Waiting until Russell got as close as possible, Gary quickly stepped out of the way at the last moment, causing Russell to go head first into the wall instead. Jimmy recalled Russell had used the move on him the first time they had been here - clearly, Russell had not learnt much from his previous experience. Gary grabbed Russell by the back of his head before the bully had a chance to recover and smashed him once again into the wall. Gary couldn’t help but smirk at the cracking noise Russell’s head made as he was thrown into the wall again, a rush of adrenaline flowing through the sociopath’s body. Russell groaned and Gary paused his attack to ask, “Give up, yet?” 

Suddenly, Gary’s wrist was grabbed and their position were flipped so that Gary was now the one being pressed against the wall, his wrists being held above his head. Russell’s huge fist wrapped around Gary’s neck, cutting off his breathing. Gary gasped and choked, his eyes widening with fear as a similar memory occurred to him. 

Gary was suddenly back at the place he grew up as a child - it wasn’t something which could be called a home. His father was looming over him, straddling Gary against the wall and choking the boy with one hand while whipping him with his belt with the other. Gary felt tears well up in his eyes, his eyes glazing with fear. “I-I’m sorry…” Gary muttered, tone distant as if he were both in the room and also not in the room at the same time, “P-Please...Don’t hurt me…” 

Gary sniffled, trying not to cry - not in front of him, not in front of his “father”.

Jimmy watched from the sidelines with concern - Gary had been doing so well but now he has suddenly frozen. What was happening? Did something happen to Gary? Was he hurt? 

Even Russell had stopped to try and figure out what the Hell Gary was going on about. His grip didn’t tighten, however, he was certainly distracted - this was Jimmy’s chance. 

He had to get to Gary. 

Jimmy shoved through the crowd of people. He had to get past in order to see if Gary was okay. “Move! Out of the way!” Jimmy snapped as he pushed people aside.

Eventually, Jimmy got to the front of the crowd, yelling, “Gary!”

Gary was staring down at the ground, his shoulders still trembling as he muttered an incomprehensible jumble of “I’m sorry”, “please don’t hurt me”, “I’ll be good” and various other phrases Jimmy couldn’t make sense of. 

“Gary, look at me!” Jimmy said and slowly sad dark eyes met his, “You’re okay. You’re not alone, I’m here with you. You’re fine.” 

Gary blinked a couple of times, the glaze in his eyes lessening slightly as he started to come back to reality. “J-Jimmy?” Gary muttered softly.

“Yeah, I’m here.” Jimmy responded, smiling at his lover.

Gary’s lips twitched into a small smile before he turned back to Russell, who was now about to punch Gary. Grabbing Russell’s fists before it could hit him, Garry quickly twisted Russell’s wrist, causing the bully to yelp as Gary hit him against the wall once again. Gary punched Russell’s face, causing a loud cracking noise to come from the bully’s jaw before kneeing him in the balls. Russell yelped a high pitch scream as he fell to the ground. The sound was unexpected, something no one thought they would ever hear from someone as tough as Russell. Laughter filled the room and Gary placed his foot on his opponent’s chest, pinning him onto his back before leaning down to choke his rival. “Give up?” Gary asked again, smirking as he watched the big ape struggle to breathe.

Russell gasped and choked, yet still did not respond. Gary allowed his grip to tighten, allowing his other foot to move backwards in preparation to kick Russell’s dick once again. This caused the bully to finally crave, his eyes going wide as he yelled, “Okay! Okay!” 

Still not satisfied, Gary’s grip tightened once again as he asked, “I’m afraid I didn’t hear you, my moronic friend. Do you give up?” 

“Yes! Yes! I give up! You win!” Russell exclaimed between gasps for air.

Gary let go of the other, allowing him to breathe once again. As Russell gasped and tried to regain his breath, the room filled with people’s whispers - some were amazed, some shocked, some angry and some were some weird combination. Cheers and whistles as well as yelling and talking filled the room but Gary paid them no mind, climbing back up from inside the area. As soon as he got up, Jimmy was standing there waiting for Gary, who practically threw himself into the other’s arms. Jimmy was surprised by Gary’s display of affection but eventually hugged the other back. 

At the sound of footsteps, the two reluctantly pulled away and turned to see Russell getting out of the arena. “You alright, Russell?” Jimmy asked.

Gary frowned, looking worried, “I, uh, didn't go too far, did I?”

“No, Russell is fine. Russell is impressed by your skills.” Russell said, causing the other members of his clique to start gathering around Gary.

“Yeah, man, that was awesome!”

“You’ve got serious skills!”

“You should, like, totally hang out with us sometime.” 

Gary and Jimmy both stared at each other with surprise, neither expecting this reaction. If anything, Gary expected them all to jump on him and strangle him to death for defeating their leader. Gary flashed a small smile as he replied, “Sure, I’ll hang out with you guys.”

Gary reached over to place a hand on Jimmy's arm as he added, “Only if Jimmy can hang with us, though.” 

“Jimmy is Russell’s little buddy - of course Jimmy can hang with Russell!” Russell responded.

Gary and Jimmy spent most of the afternoon hanging out with Gary's newfound friends - was that what they were?

To both of their surprise, Gary got along well with them all - he talked and joked with them, one might think he even bonded with them. By the time they parted ways, it was late into the evening. Upon Gary's request, the two decided to spend the night at Jimmy’s beach house. They would probably just catch the bus back to Bullworth a couple of minutes before class started tomorrow. As they entered the beach house, Jimmy practically flopped down onto one of the mattresses, pulling Gary down on top of him. A light giggle escaped Gary as he leaned his head on Jimmy's chest, the other boy running his fingers through Gary's hair. “I’m proud of you.” Jimmy said, smiling at the warmth Gary's body provided him.

“Thanks.” Gary replied with a small smile, “Although, the socialising part was harder than the actual fight.” 

Jimmy laughed. The room eventually fell silent once again when Jimmy stopped laughing. Jimmy debated on whether or not he should ask Gary about what happened during the fight with Russell, unsure if he would be effecting Gary’s already unstable mental state by asking. Gary seemed to read his mind because he said, “I’m surprised you haven't asked me about what happened earlier.”

“You mean that thing from when you were fighting Russell?” Jimmy asked.

Gary didn't speak, a small nod of his head being Jimmy's only response. “I was going to but I didn't think you would like to talk about it.”

“Not particularly.” Gary said, “But I’m willing to talk about it with you.”

Jimmy frowned. “I won't make you if you don't want to, though.” Jimmy said.

“I want to open up to you, Jimmy.” Gary said, “We are dating now, aren't we? I want to be able to tell my boyfriend these kind of things.” 

Jimmy bit his lip, hesitating. He didn't want to force Gary to do anything he didn't want to do but Gary didn't seem to mind too much and Jimmy was indeed very curious. “Is that why you wanted to come here?” Jimmy asked.

Gary nodded, replying, “I didn't want any of those morons hearing us.”

The hair in Gary's hair trailed downwards to caress his face. “Okay.” Jimmy eventually said, “Go ahead but if you want to stop or you can’t tell me everything, I understand.”

Gary paused for a couple of minutes, carefully choosing his next few words. Jimmy waited patiently until Gary finally spoke.

“I saw my dad.”

Jimmy frowned, asking, “Your dad was at The Hole?”

“No!” Gary said, “He was in my head...I think…”

Jimmy looked even more confused and Gary sighed before continuing, “I was reliving a memory from my childhood. My dad was pinning me against a wall, straddling me and choking me with one hand while whipping me with his belt in his other hand. I was scared - so fucking scared. I couldn't bring myself to move. It was like I was frozen in place. All I could do was cry and pathetically beg for my life.”

Their eyes locked as Gary added, “It wasn't until I heard you calling my name that I snapped out of it.”

Jimmy frowned - practically hearing the trauma in Gary's voice as he spoke, especially about his father. Jimmy caressed Gary's face, asking, “Did Russell choking you remind you of your dad?”

Gary shrugged, looking off to the side as he mumbled, “I guess.”

“I’m sorry. If I knew, I would've stopped him from doing that to you so you wouldn't have to be reminded of your dad.” Jimmy said.

Gary shook his head, replying, “No, you already did more than enough for me.”

Jimmy still didn't feel as though that were true - he wished he could've protected Gary from all this, from his own unstable brain, his dad, everything. “I’m sorry your dad is a psycho.” Jimmy said.

Again, Gary shrugged, saying, “It's not your fault.”

Gary smiled bitterly.

“Like father like son, I guess, huh?” 

Jimmy tilted Gary's head up so their gazes met, his eyes firm and confident. “You're nothing like your dad, okay? You've got more balls than he will ever have because you’ve done something he never had the balls to do - make things right.” Jimmy told his lover.

“I haven't made things right yet.” Gary pointed out.

“You will.” Jimmy said, kissing his lover’s head, “We will make it right together.”

Gary blushed, leaning his head back down against Jimmy’s chest, listening to the other’s heartbeat. After a couple of moments of silence, Gary asked, “Jimmy?”

“Hm?”

“Don't let go of me...Please? Stay with me?” Gary asked, his voice almost like a child’s who is scared of the dark.

Jimmy smiled at his lover’s cuteness. “Never.” Jimmy said, kissing Gary once again.

“You’re stuck with me forever.”

Gary smiled, burying himself in the warmth of the other.

“Good.”


End file.
